Article in "Longford News", dated 14th March 2003

By Conor Mc Hugh



Tensions are rising among fishing related organisations and businesses in the area over the introduction of a 35Euro rod license fee.

The introduction of the fee, from January 1, 2003 has been seen as a possible death knell for an industry already badly hit.
The fee applies to those involved in coarse fishing and affects those using a number of rivers in the Longford area, including the Inny and the Camlin.
It's the latest blow to an already ailing industry. Bord Failte has estimated, using figures from its registered B&B's, that visiting pike anglers were worth Euro41.07 million in 1994. Now they estimate it's worth Euro13.25 million.
This means that over the course of the past eight years, again according to official Bord Failte figures, which the Longford NEWS has seen, the loss of overseas pike anglers to the country is estimated to be about Euro170 million.
"If you consider that pike angling accounts for just under 50% of total angling, and that Bord Failte's figures were based only on registered B&B's, I think it's fair to say the loss to the country could be more like Euro500 million," said Geoff Cooper, a Tarmonbarry based fisherman.
Geoff, who makes a living selling angling accessories and working as an angling journalist for major Irish and British angling publications as well as Sky Sports, has noticed that over the last number of years, a serious decline in the levels of fish in the Shannon and other local waters.
He is also a member of the Irish Water and Fish Preservation Society, (IWFPS) which was set up two years ago by concerned local anglers like himself.
Speaking exclusively to the Longford NEWS, he explained that angling tourism has almost entirely collapsed.
Wheras in the mid 1990's he was used to selling 130 gallons of bait a week to visiting anglers, now he sells less than 10. In a report he prepared on the issue, he asks: "Why has Ireland failed so spectacularly to maintain tourist angler numbers at an historic level of 150,000/160,000 visitors per annum, let along record modest increases?"
According to the IWFPS, the Shannon's reputation abroad as being the best fishing river in Europe has been damaged, and many just don't believe it anymore.
"Last year," Geoff explains, "my business sponsored the Lough Inny Festival. Some of the best fishermen were there, but they caught so little they say they'll never come again."
"I used to tour Britain giving three hour lectures to people about how good fishing was in Ireland, and how they should come.
"I don't do it anymore," he says.
And the Longford NEWS has been made aware of several B&B owners throughout Longford who have suffered greatly because of a severe downturn in the number's of visiting anglers.
At a meeting hosted recently by Longford Tourism, Mr. Matt Nolan and Mr. Eamon Cusack met with local fishermen over the situation.
The NEWS understands the meeting remained civil but the two men were left in no doubt as to the depth of feeling.
A particular focus of the local fishermen's anger is the continuing culling of pike at Lough Sheelin by the Shannon Regional Fisheries Board (SRFB). Mr. Eamon Cusack of the SRFB told the Longford NEWS that gill nets were being used to remove pike in order to help the stocks of brown trout in the lake.
He added that Lough Sheelin had been designated as a brown trout area, although he did admit that gill nets, the method used to remove pike from the lake, picked up other kinds of fish as well.
He said that the SRFB were investigating other ways of removing the fish, including the possibility of moving them alive to a new location.
Mr. Cusack said that he had listened to the points made in relation to the B&B owners and said he would get back to them on that issue.
He said the 35Euro fee would be reinvested in "the development and promotion of these waters." And he said that the culling of the pike was being done on scientific advice.
But Mr. Pat Byrne, a former press officer of the Irish Pike Society rubbished these claims. He told the NEWS that there are plenty of evidence to suggest that pike and brown trout could peacefully co-exist and that there was no need to cull to pike to preserve the trout.
Mr. Byrne added that he and other fishermen wouldn't have such a problem with the fee if they didn't think it was being used to fund gill nets on Lough Sheelin.
Another cause of the general decline of stocks is pollution and the Longford NEWS has learned that the European Commission is investigating water quality in the river Shannon, between the section of the area or Drumsna and Tarmonbarry.
The Directorate-General of Environment (an equivalent of the Department of the Environment) has written to Irish authorities seeking information on a number of points relating to this part of the river.
They have also asked specific questions about a particular possible source of pollution, which they name.
According to Geoff Cooper, results have been obtained from independent and well known laboratories outlining what chemicals were found in samples from the river he provided them. These show that essentially, the Shannon is rapidly turning into a dump, with higher than recommended levels of several chemicals such as nitrates and phosphates and the presence of some that shouldn't be next nor near a river that is used by so many people, like formaldehyde.
Another contributing factor to the decline of fish stocks is the existence of an illegal fishing trade, and local fishermen have spent the last two years gathering evidence of this throughout the region, some of which the Longford NEWS has seen.
Speaking to the Longford NEWS, Mr. Matt Nolan of the SRFB said he didn't believe there was much illegal fishing going on, simply because he didn't think people had any need to do so anymore.
"Often people see nets on the rivers and lakes and ring us up, thinking there's illegal fishing going on, but they usually belong to some of the fishermen who've been licensed by the ESB to fish for eel," he said.
A spokesperson for the ESB said that the company has granted 40 licences to fishermen, who in turn, sold 100 tonnes of eel a season, back to the ESB.
That would suggest that each of the license holders are catching 2.5 tonnes of eels per season. If the average eel weighs about a pound, it is necessary for each fisherman to catch in excess of 2000 eels in a season, which lasts three months. And in the first blow in what looks like being a prolonged campaign, a boycott of all waters is being proposed by the Irish Federation of Pike Angling Clubs.
John Chambers, Chairman of that Federation told the NEWS why should we pay to fish on waters where what I'm trying to catch are being killed.
"Why should I pay to cast a line and catch a gill net?"
He criticized the entire Lough Sheelin project saying: "There's the same amount of pike in it now than there was thirty or forty years ago, but the trout numbers have dropped.
"As a wild brown trout fishery, Lough Sheelin is a dead duck. They've gotten millions of EU and public money, but it's not working.
" He felt that it was mainly pollution that was killing off trout, not pike.
Mr. Chambers explained that his members felt very strong about this issue and were willing to boycott all of the waters involved in protest at the fee.

End of Article

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