Decline in salmon may close Feale

A SHARP decline in the number of salmon entering a well-known angling river could close it as a fishery in 2013.

Anglers on the Feale, which rises near Rockchapel, Co Cork, and flows through Abbeyfeale and Listowel, before entering the sea at Ballybunion, Co Kerry, are concerned the river may not reach its conservation limit (the number of salmon left to spawn) and will be closed under EU habitat laws.

Only 1,208 salmon travelled upstream in the first six months of this year. An average of 665 salmon per month is needed for the remainder of the year if the conservation figure of 4,323 is to be reached. There are 600 anglers and 51 commercial draft net fishermen on the Feale, and closure of the fishery would have financial and social consequences, says Brendan Danaher, spokesman for the Mountcollins and Brosna Anglers’ Association. Licence fee revenue is €1m, there is income for net fishermen, and recreational value for anglers.

Inland Fisheries Ireland has acknowledged a ‘noticeable decline’ in fish numbers — from 8,000, in 2010, to 5,500, in 2011 — and says spawning issues, predation at sea, and weather changes may have contributed. A critical issue is the number of fish caught by net fishermen and anglers, about three to one in favour of the net men. That, says Mr Danaher, is the “elephant in the room”. He says there should be a ban on draft net fishing in August, and perhaps the Government should buy out the net fishermen as they did drift net fishermen. Nor would he be averse to restrictions on angling, or a shortening of the season.

Mr Danaher says: “The present management system is not working. Inland Fisheries Ireland have lost the goodwill of the anglers. The same failed policies are pursued on an annual basis while the river is dying before our eyes.”

Angling clubs have invested €400,000 on the Feale in the past 10 years, on rock armoury, bank protection, signposting, stiles, and footbridges. They are lobbying politicians.

Anglers say they outnumber the net men 12 to one, but the net men “get priority”. The 76km river is famed but Feale salmon may have distinct DNA. Dr Niall Ó Maoiléidigh, of the National Salmon Commission, says Feale salmon runs “may have distinct biological characteristics important to the maintenance of the population as a whole and necessary to maintain the biodiversity of the population”.