Non-traditional driftnets have decimated salmon stocks

IT IS with some incredulity that I read Seamus de Burca’s letter (Irish Examiner, March 13), portraying himself as a poor downtrodden commercial fisherman.

“As a commercial salmon fisherman for the past 30 years,” he says. Let’s see what’s happened in that time.

The Irish salmon fishing industry existed in a state of equilibrium since useful records began around 1860, up to 1965. In that period, traditional driftnetsmen got about 15% of the catch, mostly from the estuaries stock were heading into.