Drift-netting: listen to science not politics

THE conclusions of the independent salmon group on drift nets are welcome (Irish Examiner, October 25). The Government’s response will reveal much about the relationship between scientific advice and political decision-making.

The expert group concludes that only an immediate end to drift-net fishing can avert a terminal decline of salmon stocks — yet Fianna Fáil TDs from coastal counties are already arguing that drift-netting is a traditional practice and it is ‘unrealistic’ to impose a complete ban. They propose voluntary measures instead.

It’s hard to see how these TDs are representing the best interests of their constituents, given that scientific reality is not negotiable. What these politicians are really saying is the Government should let drift-netters catch all the salmon they want and discover for themselves this is unsustainable, rather than intervene to make salmon stocks, and fishing, sustainable into the future.

Such abdication of political responsibility would put short-term self-interest above long-term public interest. In this case, the survival of the salmon and the future of coastal communities are at stake.

The Government is also promising a new climate change policy. A similarly slipshod approach to converting scientific imperatives into policy prescriptions in this case would promote chaos on a planetary scale.

Oisín Coghlan

Director

Friends of the Earth

9 Upper Mount Street

Dublin 2