Irish Examiner view: Salmon numbers highlight our neglected fish sector

Salmon fisherman at work, during high tide on the River Lee, at the Lower Glanmire Road, Cork. 'Salmon stocks have been declining for years, largely because of habitat degradation, climate change, disease, and politicians.' File picture: Larry Cummins

The historic — and gross — neglect of Ireland’s fishing industry by successive administrations has come into focus once more as Salmon Watch Ireland took to the international stage to highlight the plight of the once thriving species here.

Its voice was one of many at the recent North Atlantic Salmon Conservation Organization conference in Aviemore in Scotland, where sobering assessments of the challenges facing wild Atlantic salmon told a grim tale.

Salmon stocks have been declining for years, largely because of habitat degradation, climate change, disease, and politicians. Representatives of indigenous communities and scientists were on hand to address the need for international co-operation and understanding of the pressures facing salmon during lifecycle migrations.

It is not just salmon that are being affected by the degradation of rivers traditionally also used by trout, freshwater crayfish, and freshwater mussels. Swallows too are suffering because one of their main sources of food — river flies — are also diminishing in number.

Many of the issues involved in the threat to salmon numbers — as well as those of other species — are common across North Atlantic countries including pollution from wastewater and agricultural run-off.

Ireland, however, still has some pristine rivers and stocks are still falling, so the problems might be rooted elsewhere. Our seas also present problems and the bycatch caused by the enormous pelagic fishing fleets operating in the Norwegian sea, for example, are literally hoovering up vast quantities of fish — salmon included.

It may be that these fleets now have to adhere to a mandatory bycatch reporting system, but skippers are reluctant to do so fully for fear of being banned from certain areas. But it is also difficult to pinpoint juvenile salmon when they are landing thousands of tonnes of fish every time they put to sea.

This is a solvable problem, but it is going to need a determined co-operative multi-agency approach and the involvement of all stakeholders if our salmon stocks are to be restored to acceptable — and thriving — levels.

Past oversights corrected

Irish women will know only too well how their role in the shaping of our world has historically been underplayed to the point where their contributions — collective and individual — have been almost anonymised.

Writing women out of history has become commonplace —something highlighted in this newspaper for many years now by Clodagh Finn’s weekly paean to their achievements — but one city council in this country is intent on righting past wrongs in this regard.

Dublin City Council has announced it is to commission a monument in the capital honouring the women of Ireland’s revolutionary period as part of a broader effort to rectify past oversights.

There has been an historic underrepresentation of women in public spaces in terms of statues and other memorials, not to mention the naming of streets, bridges, and buildings, across Ireland and it is fitting that our capital city is to lead the way in correcting a somewhat grotesque omission.

The planned monument will cover the period from the 1914 lockout to the end of the Civil War in 1923 and will be prominently sited near the GPO in Dublin.

Initially it was proposed that there would be a statue to commemorate Constance Markievicz, one of the most noted women involved throughout Ireland’s revolutionary years, but as one already exists, it was decided to broaden the scope of the idea.

Consequently, the council decided to memorialise the lives of other less-well-known women whose lives, actions, and deeds deserve to be honoured as well.

A final list of names to be included has not yet been finalised as it will be open to artists to interpret, using historical information provided about women from the period.

It is proposed that the sculpture will be monumental in scale and in a high-profile location where people will see it all the time, giving it the profile it deserves.

But this is not just a singular effort by Dublin City Council as it will be the first of a four-phase programme aimed at
increasing the visibility of women’s contributions to Irish history through public art, street names, plaques, and commemorations.

As of 2023, only 27 of the 923 streets in Dublin’s city centre were named after women and last year, Mary Lavin Place, a new square overlooking the Grand Canal, became the first public space named after one of our female literary giants.

Councils and local authorities across the country should take note of this initiative and take long overdue steps to correct the years of neglect in recognising the immense contribution of women to our country’s history.

Cash-strapped councils in a bind

There has been a universal welcome for the growing number of greenways and active travel routes across Ireland.

The creation of these facilities is a win-win situation for everyone; they allow people get out and about and exercise in a safe, clean environment and there is also a tourism kick-back.

As ever in this country, however, there is a downside. These amenities are funded by Transport Infrastructure Ireland and the National Transport Authority, who also provide a small amount of money for maintenance for a short period after completion.

Thereafter it falls on municipal district councils to produce the cash to maintain them, diverting significant amounts of money from other resources.

The Government has effectively kicked the ball of funding down the road until next year, leaving cash-strapped municipal councils in a bind.

Frankly, this is not good enough and the Department of Transport, which is responsible for the provision of this funding, has to realise the broad cost benefits involved.

Transport and environment minister Darragh O’Brien has extolled the virtues of greenways and active travel routes; he now needs to stump up the money necessary to maintain them.

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