Lough Neagh Eel Fishery Aid
Northern Ireland Announces £700,000 Support Fund for Lough Neagh Eel Fishers
Anonymous
Northern Ireland will provide £700,000 over three years from 2026 to support Lough Neagh eel fishers and specialist hauliers during the closure of the yellow/brown eel fishery. Up to 81 permit holders and five hauliers may receive reimbursement for half of qualifying lost income, helping them adapt while retaining the skills and capacity needed for a sustainable industry; officials say it is not a decommissioning program. The closure is intended to allow more eels to mature and migrate to spawning grounds, supporting recovery of a species whose population has fallen sharply since the 1980s and is considered critically endangered.
Key Points
1
To qualify for reimbursement, applicants must have been commercially active in at least one of 2022, 2023 or 2024; the scheme calculates support against income from those years.
2
Some commercial eel fishers rely on the catch for as much as 70% of their income. Although around 80 licences are issued, not all are used.
3
Lough Neagh has two overlapping eel-fishing seasons: one for yellow/brown eels and a later season for silver eels as they leave the Lough.
4
ICES scientific advice for 2026 calls for zero catches of European eel in all habitats when applying the precautionary approach.
5
The causes of the eel decline are not fully understood; habitat loss, climate change and over-fishing are among the suspected contributing factors.
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