Salmon season opens:  Unsustainable exploitation

The salmon season opened on many rivers yesterday. Older anglers hardy enough — and still romantic enough — to brave the February cold do not even have to look back to their father’s time to remember an abundance seemingly gone forever. Salmon populations have collapsed within living memory. A February salmon, once commonplace, is a

novelty. Habitat destruction, growing populations of river avian and mammal predators, fish farming and climate change have all contributed. Human impact is the greatest issue. Poaching continues on any river with a reasonable population. A Kinsale restaurant owner was, ironically, convicted and fined yesterday after six untagged, wild salmon were found in a freezer. The fish were net marked despite drift netting being banned in 2006.