2671. Deputy Pádraig Mac Lochlainn asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine whether his Department or the Marine Institute has assessed the effect of reduced commercial pollack fishing in 2024 and 2025 on stock abundance in 2026; whether reports of improved catches off the northwest coast are being investigated; whether these indicate a local or wider stock recovery; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [61191/26]

The Marine Institute, through Ireland's participation in the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES), contributes to the assessment of the stock status of pollack and provision of catch advice.

The most recent assessment indicates that fishing mortality in 2024 and 2025 was reduced to sustainable levels and that the stock size in 2026 shows a moderate increasing trend.

Reports of improved catches in the northwest are not inconsistent with this assessment. However, localised increases in catches do not necessarily indicate stock recovery, either locally or across the stock as a whole. Changes in distribution, aggregation behaviour, habitat use, or environmental conditions can increase local availability without reflecting an underlying increase in stock abundance.

The pollack stock is assessed over a large geographic area extending from the west of Scotland to the north of France. Both commercial and recreational catches are accounted for in the assessment. While reports of local catch rates can provide useful information, they are not sufficient on their own to determine whether recovery is occurring at either a local or stock-wide scale.