Illegal pike in lakes puts trout and salmon stocks at risk

THE WESTERN Regional Fisheries Board has confirmed that pike have been illegally introduced to lakes in Connemara, threatening brown trout and salmon stocks.

Pike, the voracious predator at the top of the freshwater food chain, were found in several lakes on the Owenriff river system near Oughterard, Co Galway. The Owenriff lakes of Lough Boffin and Agraffard are upstream of Lough Corrib and are hugely important spawning and nursery catchments for trout and salmon.

Western Fisheries Board staff have been using electro-fishing to stun and remove the juvenile pike in shallow waters, but it’s likely they will have to introduce widespread netting in deeper waters during spawning next March.

Fisheries Inspector Martin Butler said they have found large pike of up to three years’ old and a population explosion has taken place. It is believed the pike were illegally introduced into lakes in Connemara to attract foreign anglers, as Irish fishermen have little interest in them.

“It could be an individual or individuals. There are also a number of privately-owned fishing rights in the area. The problem is that there is such a lack of education around biosecurity, about moving fish and plants, around,” he said.

Mr Butler said the efforts to remove the invaders would be a “huge drain on resources”, but it was unlikely they would get a cash injection to save the fishery.

“The wild brown trout who hatched in the streams above the lake grow for up to two years before descending to Lough Corrib to join the existing trout stocks. Unfortunately, these lakes now have significant and rapidly expanding pike populations which have only juvenile trout on which to feed,” said another fisheries inspector Kevin Crowley.

Lough Corrib is already fighting another battle against alien species. A non-native pond weed, Lagarosiphon found its way into the waters in 2005 and is wiping out the native weed, which harboured insects beloved of the brown trout, at an alarming rate.