Poachers expose salmon defences

ON RTÉ’s Prime Time programme of Tuesday, February 8, which dealt with our dangerously low wild salmon stocks, South Western Regional Fisheries Board CEO Aidan Barry told the nation that the salmon policing system in his area had been transformed.

The claim was blown out of the water when the programme showed poachers - operating in the month of February - in broad daylight just a few miles away in an area under Mr Barry’s jurisdiction.

That the Prime Time team was able to screen current footage of illegal netting came as no great surprise to clubs affiliated to the Killarney Valley Anglers’ Federation.