Time to change or disappear - As go the salmon, so may we

ADAPTABILITY, ambition, determination, pragmatism, courage and an understanding of the power of community — and the game-changing gift of a thumb — are some of the

We have, for the great majority of people, at least nullified disease and hunger. Though millions struggle with hunger and poverty every day the graph is ever upward, especially in emerging economies. This relentless progress has not been without cost, one that has, according to science and increasingly irrefutable evidence, become unsustainable.

Today, the eve of the end of the salmon angling season on most Irish rivers, we report on the state of Atlantic salmon in Ireland. The iconic species is caught in a disastrous spiral of decline for many reasons, all of them manmade. Less than a century ago the population was so abundant that in one setting — the River Lee — there were multiple and lucrative netting stations; a major one at Carrigadrohid, another as far upstream as Inchigeelagh.