§ Mr. William Rossasked the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what information he has as to the number of salmon which were taken by anglers in each stretch of the River Bush in each year since 1973 to the latest available date by (a) fly, (b) prawn, (c) worm and (d) spinning.
§ Dr. Boyson[pursuant to his reply, 19 December 1984, c. 209]: I would refer the hon. Gentleman to the reply I gave him on 21 November 1984, at column 206. Information of catches by specific methods of angling is not available.
§ Mr. William Rossasked the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many salmon and grilse were taken by the fish trap on the River Bush at Bushmills in each year since 1973 for stripping; how many salmon parr were produced from those fish in each year; where they were used for restocking; how many salmon redds were counted in the Bush system in each of those years; and what was the estimated production of parr from those redds.
§ Dr. Boyson[pursuant to his reply, 19 December 1984, c. 209]: The following table indicates the numbers of adult salmon retained for stripping at Bushmills since 1973. The progeny of these adult fish is stocked as ova, fry, or as parr on one occasion in the case of the river Roe. Otherwise they are retained until the adult stage is reached. The smolt and ova production figures are presented in the table.
299WAmong the locations which have been restocked with ova from this production are the rivers Bush, Margy, Shimna, Rooghan and the Roe and various other rivers
Year Number of salmon and grilse taken for stripping Smolts reared and released at Bushmills Number of ova produced for restocking Number of redds counted in Bush system Estimated smolt production from redds 1973 710 41,845 260,000 — 18,784 1974 1,413 — 805,000 280 21,160 1975 1,539 14,213 1,017,000 389 21,173 1976 1,282 7,122 925,000 356 35,746 1977 863 10,855 50,000 418 22,457 1978 612 2,661 30,000 345 12,665 1979 568 1,122 14,000 201 12,279 1980 975 4,050 717,000 106 13,594 1981 245 1,434 220,000 163 32,750 1982 620 Not yet available 292,000 170 Not yet available 1983 423 Not yet available 140,000 * — * Weather condition prevented count. Data for 1984 are not yet available.