Crisis levels of salmon stocks in Irish waters

A MAJOR hotelier says his business is down 50% because little is being done to preserve salmon stocks in Irish waters.

Ian Powell runs the internationally-renowned Blackwater Lodge Salmon Fishing Hotel in Ballyduff, west Waterford. But since salmon stocks began to dwindle on the river in 2000, so has his business.

Unless something is done soon to address the situation, and drift netting in particular is curtailed, he fears he could be put out of business.