About

About FISSTA

FISSTA are an all Ireland angling representative body for salmon and seatrout angling and the voice of over 5,000 members in up to 90 affiliated salmon and sea trout (salmonid) clubs located on the main Irish angling waterways. FISSTA was established in 1986 as an effective lobby group to improve and assist the lot of the Irish angler. Local anglers who want to develop and conserve their fishery need the help to get started and FISSTA have assisted many anglers to organise themselves into formally registered clubs on their local waters and by providing the most competitively priced insurance scheme that protects the personal assets of club officers and our registered membership.

We campaign for anglers rights and conservation of wild salmonid stocks. We seek fair access to angling waters for the local club angler at a reasonable cost and campaign for the right for a 7 year secure tenure for all Irish angling clubs leasing state waters.

As an umbrella body for anglers it is a strong voice for the conservation of salmon both nationally and internationally. Our motto is “Committed to Conservation” and continue to work to achieve the abundant return of the wild Atlantic salmon to our waters and our work has been acknowledged worldwide. In December 2007, the Icelandic President awarded the Knight’s Cross for the many years of support for the wild Atlantic salmon.

FISSTA are one of the founder members and first contributor to the North Atlantic Salmon Fund (NASF)and we have campaigned for over twenty years against successive Irish Government policy of the unsustainable practice of driftnetting. We accepted that this should be done by compensating the commercial netsmen and by supporting the NASF proposals put forward by Chairman Orri Vigfusson to extend his buyout scheme to our coastline.

FISSTA united the campaign against driftnetting in 2004 by founding the Stop Salmon Driftnets Now campaign which acted as the binding force for all angling and fishery interests to lobby the Government. The turning point for the campaign came when we mobilised 5,000 supporters to travel to Killarney in County Kerry to protest at the Fianna Fail Ardfheis on the 22nd October, 2005. On November 1st, 2006, the Government in a pre election mode adopted the White Report which ended the driftnetting at sea under a compensation scheme. However, the NASF model was not adopted and the present process is fragile for all concerned.

FISSTA continues to campaign for the wild Atlantic salmon to return to abundance and the issues now are the increase of draft netting, pollution from fish farms, and development of our salmonid habitat. We seek new members support clean water, the sport of angling and saving the wild Atlantic salmon.