Inland Fisheries has overall policy responsibility for the conservation, management and regulation of the inland fishery resource and is subject to significant EU legislative obligation under Habitats, Water Framework and other EU Directives. The resource which includes salmon, sea trout, brown trout, eels and coarse fish species is under threat from a range of factors including environmental factors (pollution and water quality, habitat degradation) and overexploitation
Inland Fisheries need, therefore, to be regulated to allow stocks at risk to recover and conservation of inland fisheries must be part of a wider, catchment-based approach to managing freshwater and estuarine resources and the biodiversity that underpins the functioning of these ecosystems.