Movement of salmon from the south coast of Ireland in 1973-1974

In 1973 tagging investigations were started into the origin of the salmon stocks being exploited in the West Cork area (8º0'W to 10º10'W) along the south coast of Ireland. The vessels used varied from six metre open boats to twenty metre trawlers, the average length was 10.5 metres (1972 survey involving 276 boats). Fishing is carried on over the twenty four hours. Up to 1973 nets were 30 mashes deep: in that year nets of 60 and up to 98 meshes were introduced, and during the 1974 season most boats fished nets of 68 meshes deep. The length of net varied from 400 metres to 1.6 km. Nets were shot at right angles to the coast in roughly a north-south direction, all vessels staying quite close to land, the furthest distance out being approximately 2 km from land. Most fish were caught in the bottom portion of the net during the hours of day-light but at night or in rough weather about half the catch were caught in the top portion of the net