Nets are choking salmon tourism

I WISH to express my concern at new research suggesting that North Atlantic salmon are in serious decline.

The National Salmon Commission has published the results of a survey which suggests that only three out of 200 rivers have sufficient stocks of fish returning to spawn to sustain existing stocks.

The total salmon catch in 1970 was 1,676 tonnes compared to 575 tonnes in 2003. Drift- and draft-netting of salmon from May to August each year will take over 400,000 salmon around our coast from Donegal to Kerry and right up to Carlingford. This accounts for over 70% of the total salmon catch.