FACT OR FICTION ?

Letter to ................

Dear Editor,

In October 1998, I learnt with dismay and disgust that the Western Regional Fisheries Board (WRFB) were culling pike once again on the Great Western Loughs - namely Corrib, Mask and Carra.

Since 1991 I have been involved in Angling Tourism and for five years until 1997 operated a successful fishing lodge on the shores of Corrib at Annaghdown. During this period, from a zero base to great success in a little over five seasons, occupancy ran at 80% for the ten month season in which we operated. Mid February would see the arrival of dedicated British pike anglers seeking that elusive leviathan, and the economic benefits accruing to our small angling business and indeed to the local business community as a whole, from these early visitors, were considerable. For example: outboard motors require regular servicing, unleaded fuel + two stroke oil purchases visiting anglers eat out in local hostelries and restaurants as well as at the Lodge. They hire cars, require laundry and housekeeping services and provide employment for local fishing guides. The list could go on.... This is the Economic Multiplier effect working at its best in rural Ireland.

Soon the angling calendar brought the visiting trout angler to the Lodge and together with the Dutch, French, German, Belgian and British angling visitors we had many wonderful experiences of great friends , tall tales and wonderful fishing adventures. Then Autumn was once more, the trout season over, but the pike anglers continued to fill our guest rooms until November. These same visitors came back to Annaghdown Lodge year after year.

During the years 1994 onwards, l was constantly aware of statements made by various WRFB personnel that the Board as the statutory body with responsiblity for the management, conservation, protection and development of the fisheries within the Boards region had sought finance for the reintroduction of an intensive and sustained Pike Culling Programme on Loughs Corrib, Mask and Carra in order to " restore" these unique Lakes to their former glory as premier wild brown trout fisheries."

This aspiration, though highly commendable as a stand alone objective, is in my opinion, imperfect and ultimately doomed, due to the flawed nature of the science which both the WRFB and the Central Fisheries Board (CFB) have used as the bedrock for their enhancement and restoration programme entitled " THE CORRIB SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT PLAN." Allow me to explain.

In Spring 1996, the CFB along with the WRFB carried out a fish stock survey on Loughs Corrib, Mask and Carra. Among the conclusions drawn in the report was the very emotive suggestion that the as yet unquantifiable pike population on Corrib had eaten its way through 118 tons or 255,000 trout in calenclar year 1995. However, no figures were given for the total trout population on Corrib. The authors of this report even throw in the following caveat:- '* these figures should not be misconstrued as absolute values, but do serve to indicate the extent of the predation by pike on trout. They may be a conservative estimate of the preclation rate by pike on trout in Lough Corrib ."

l have read through the above report many times, dwelling on certain conclusions and statements. The much maligned Esox certainly comes in for a severe battering! Anyone with a modicum of intelligence can calculate on the basis of the above statement that if those assertions regarding pike predation rates on Corrib trout stocks were even half accurate, then the pike population on the whole Corrib system would surely have annihilated the entire trout population and rendered it extinct by now! Furthermore, with the near total collapse during the same period of the Perch population - the allegedly "marauding pike stocks" would be on course for self destruction, having eaten themselves out of house and home! This scenario is totally at variance with the laws of nature and quite clearly not the case. Many people feel the emotive and cunningly deployed use of such rhetoric was intended to whip up support for the pike culling programme. Perhaps designed to enrage trout anglers and fuel their resentment towards pike and pike fishermen? Thankfully most real anglers saw through this literary incendiary device and looked to the more pressing problems of water quality degradation and destruction/siltation of spawning redds. In addition to this, there is a critical need for the operation of low cost hatchery/nursery units at various points around the Lakes in order to enhance trout stocks, utilising captured indigenous brood fish. This should be a priority in the Corrib System Development Plan.

If a "CATCH AND RELEASE"-ethos were to be adopted by ALL anglers in a judicious way ( as in most other European countries, and in particular North America), then the future of our sport and the future of our childrens sport  would be secured.

CFB scientists along with WRFB personnel have always maintained that the "Iarge pike are the problem - not the smaller fish, i.e. those less than 40cms (16 inches in length)."If this is so, why then as l write are the WRFB continuing to deploy gill nets when their own recently published reports admit that during the present pike and trout slaughter, no large pike have been captured/ tagged and released." Only trout and small pike are being ensnared in these gill nets. According to the WRF's own records of late, approximately one trout is caught in the gill nets for every pike taken. Is this what the trout angling fraternity want and support in order to enhance a dwindling trout population? …l think not!

On Wednesday morning, 2nd December 1998, I, along with my fishing partner Frank Barbé"', spent some time photographing a WRFB netting crew on Upper Mask. Frank and l recorded five gill nets and one fyke net deployed. The total catch from the three nets which we saw lifted, was two small pike and six trout. This was during a two hour period. Of the six trout taken, all were captured in one gill net which had been strategically placed across the mouth of the Gleanntreag River. This net stretched for approx. 200 metres (see photos.) Note the close proximity of this gill net to, this important spawning river. Also, in early December, brood trout are endeavouring to reach spawning rivers to pair off and procreate the species. Of the six trout, one fish was stone dead ( 4.5lbs approx.) and left in the boat; five were returned, two of which were very ropey and we were doubtful they would survive. All five trout were hurled into the water like lumps of coal . Each of the six trout had to be cut free by knife from the gill nets (see photo).

Most of you reading this might not be aware of all the cynical press statements and other PR guff that the WRIFB have been issuing of late. They omit to inform you that this latest venture of theirs would appear to most folk as a cynical ploy to achieve a total cull by the back door. Let me expand this statement. In a recent communication to Frank Gibbons, Gen. Sec. of the PIKE ANGLERS CLUB OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND, dated 4 November 1998, Michael Kennedy, Chief Officer of the WRFB, stated that the timetable for the present culling operation is to run from " October to, November this year (1998) , and January to, April next year (1999) with f urther decisions to be taken in relation to the latter part of 1999." Bearing in mind that in 1997, when the Management of the WRIFB and CFB presided over the most shameful and appalling wholesale slaughter of the largest and finest pike on Mask and Upper Corrib, (2080 pike slaughtered and only 41 transferred in a period from January through April 1997) , the future prospects certainly do not augur well for Esox, now do they?

At a meeting held in Dublin on 27 January 1997 between the then Minister of the Marine's representative, WRIFB personnel, CFB personnel, a Marine Institute representative and officers of the PAC including this writer, l asked Dr Martin 0 Grady of the CFB this question : What level of mortalities did he expect from the deployment of gill nets on Upper Corrib and Mask? He opined that a low level of mortality would be achieved. What fiction this turned out to be! Laughable, if only the situation was not so grave with large numbers of glorious brown trout currently being ensnared in the meshes of this environmental obscenity.

Those trout lucky enough to make it to the spawning redds, undoubtedly produce ova of dubious viability. The WRFB tell us that all trout are released back into the Lough. ( remember   the "lump of coal" trout!). (See photo) More and more people feel it is disingenuous at the very least, even lies and deception at the very worst, for the WRFB to tell concerned fishermen that mortalities achieved are low. Those surviving but mortally wounded trout l referred to previously, must once again run the gauntlet with this wall of death in order to fulfil the biological and genetic imperative to reproduce the species. My own opinion is that they could not survive a second encounter with this barbaric apparatus.

l urge all right thinking, concerned anglers to, say STOP - ENOUGH OF THIS MADNESS and NO MORE TO THE GILL NETTING on these unique and wonderful waters.

Sincerely,
ALAN BRODERICK.

Note: For anyone thinking that my interests are commercially motivated, I no longer reside in the West of Ireland, having moved my business to the more Pike friendly environs of Lough Derravaragh.

: SOWL

Last update on : 06/02/99