New Limits placed on coarse fishing in Ireland

[Leon Roskilly]

"Des Chew, of the Eastern Regional Fisheries Board, said: “Over the past two years there has been a growing number of complaints from anglers about over- fishing of these varieties and a corresponding decline in numbers. In some cases, illegal methods such as drift-net and night-rod fishing have been used. Mainly it’s due to a cultural change with the fish being caught to be eaten rather than returned to the water.”

 

see: www.timesonline.co.uk/printFriendly...1572584,00.html

 

Tight Lines - leon

[Peter Waller]

Leon also posted this on the Fish Theft from the Broads thread. But in that case it's the wrong Eastern Region, as I'm sure that you all know! Yes, we have to be aware that there is a problem here in the UK, but perhaps it doesn't apply at Potter Heigham in that particular case. After years of 'official' pike killing I have to have a wry smile that the Irish are now worrying about fish stocks!

 

[ 19. April 2005, 07:15 PM: Message edited by: Peter Waller ]

[Michael G]

Most if not all of the Irish fisheries boards have now grown out of the pike-killing habit. I think the North-Western Board was the last one to stop it, about three years ago. No, we have a problem with immigrants taking fish to eat and using commercial methods to catch them.

[Peter Waller]

Michael, there are areas of the UK where this is very much a problem, and in certainly creates great ill feeling.

[blackwater]

Yes, it's great that we now have immigrants to blame for the decline in fish stocks. After years and years of killing everything that swimmed Irish anglers can now blame somebody else for the problem. Bream disappearing from traditional areas? It's the bloody immigrants. (Nothing at all to do with poor water quality caused by pollution from phospates, oh no, nothing at all). Pike fishing dropping off? It's the bloody immigrants. (Nothing at all to do with the boom in pike angling and the consequent increased pressure on the same waters year in, year out).

Yes, there is a problem with immigrants taking fish, but it is not the only problem. As Dave Egan points out in the article linked above, the problem of coarse fish being killed existed in Ireland long before the arrival of immigrants. Pot...kettle....black....

[Jim Roper]

Vote UKIP?

[Michael G]

Admittedly we Paddies are savage and primitive and I humbly apologise to Blackwater for our racial inferiority, but I haven't seen an angler kill a coarse fish here in Ireland in the last 20 years, except for Germans taking pike to freeze and bring home. It is perfectly true, unfortunately, that there are now eastern Europeans netting coarse fish and eating them. I know of one angler who was beaten up when he refused to hand over a large pike he had just landed and was going to put back (presumably he wasn't Irish).

 

We do have a problem with eutrophication from phosphates, principally around Cavan and Monaghan where there are a lot of intensive pig farms, but we're getting on top of that now as well. Anyway coarse fish are far less vulnerable to eutrophication - it's the salmonids that suffer.

[blackwater]

Hello Michael G. Some confusion here? I am Irish, with not an ounce of racial inferiority. I wasn't specifically referring to Irish coarse anglers in my post above. What I was talking about was Irish anglers in general. The game fisherman here (the majority) has traditionally killed everything they have caught. I have no problem if they wish to do that to their trout and salmon. But I grew up beside a mixed salmon and coarse river. Any pike caught by salmon anglers was (and still is) killed. Any silverfish caught by trout anglers in the main river or it's tributaries was (and still is) killed. This has gone on throughout the island over the years, has it not? Any advances regarding fish care, welfare and a catch & release ethos here has come about from Irish coarse anglers (the minority), not the other sections of the angling community. Without Irish coarse anglers the situation would be much worse.

As I said, yes, there is a problem with non-nationals catching & killing coarse fish. Yes, it has to be addressed. And in addressing it we can try to change some of the (ingrained?) attitudes to coarse fish and fishing that lives on amongst our own.

[Michael G]

Hello Blackwater. I actually did wonder whether you were Irish, with a name like that. Your latest post certainly makes the position a lot clearer. I tend to fish lakes rather than rivers and I wasn't aware that there were still game anglers who regarded pike and other coarse anglers as vermin. Surely there can't still be many who think like that?

[Colin Brett]

Sadly the Western Fisheries board are still gill netting on the western loughs as are the North Western.

 

Colin