Protecting wildlife - Bass ban must stay

FISHING communities have, and are, facing huge changes, many of them unwelcome.

Stocks of once plentiful fish – cod, tuna and Atlantic salmon – have collapsed. Technology has made many of the old skills redundant and changed a lot of commercial fishing from something sustainable to something utterly destructive.

Two decades ago, this led to the introduction of a complete ban on bass fishing in Irish waters as the stocks of this slow-growing fish – a 10-pound bass might be 20 years old – had reached dangerously low levels. Stocks have since made a partial recovery.

Because of this the Federation of Irish Fishermen have asked the Government to reopen the commercial bass fishery. Anglers have been allowed, under very strict limitations, to fish for bass for some years.

Though angling has a limited impact on numbers, it is feared, and all the evidence to support this argument exists, that reopening the commercial bass fishery would undo the work of 20 years in a season or two.

We have, as the discovery of the remains of yet another poisoned sea eagle in Kerry over the weekend shows, a shamefully ambivalent attitude to the wildlife we hold intrust for the future.

This was the 12th of 55 reintroduced sea eagles to be killed in Ireland.

This must change and Environment Minster John Gormley must introduce the long-delayed legislation to control poisons to protect raptors. Sadly, for small sections of our fishing community, his colleague Fisheries Minister Brendan Smith must reject the application to reopen the commercial bass fishery.