A Future for Ireland’s Wild Atlantic Salmon: Have Your Say

Wild Atlantic salmon have shaped Sally Barnes’s life and work at Woodcock Smokery. Their future matters deeply to us and to the fishing communities, skills and food traditions connected to them.

A new government consultation in Ireland invites the public to help shape their protection and recovery. Following a review by Inland Fisheries Ireland, it comes amid a serious decline: annual salmon returns have fallen from more than a million in the 1970s to fewer than 200,000 in recent years.

Proposals for the 2027 fishing season include stricter criteria for allowing harvest, reduced recreational catch limits and additional protection for larger salmon. The consultation also considers longer-term recovery through healthier habitats, improved water quality, fewer barriers to migration and stronger scientific monitoring.

For Sally, these concerns are inseparable from a lifetime working with wild fish and her involvement in Slow Food’s Slow Fish network. We believe scientific evidence and the knowledge of small-scale fishing communities must both inform the way forward.

We encourage everyone who cares about wild salmon and Ireland’s rivers to read the proposals and contribute their views.

The consultation closes at 5.30 pm on Friday 30 October 2026.

Read the consultation and find out how to have your say on gov.ie.