Author: Noel Carr

HOW MANY TIMES DOES THIS ENVIRONMENTAL CRIME HAVE TO HAPPEN BEFORE ACTION IS TAKEN? SADLY THERE IS NO BODY LIKE OKOKRIM IN NORWAY TO PROSECUTE SUCH ACTION HERE SO DUMPING CONTINUES IN THE WILD ATLANTIC WAY.

Very serious situation unfolding Farmed salmon have been dumped on Spiddal beach near the pier some of which have tags from a Salmon Farming Company.

GALWAY BAY AGAINST SALMON CAGES PRESS RELEASE
Galway Bay may now be infected with a deadly fish virus called Pancreas Disease (PD), due to the illegal and criminal dumping of farmed salmon carcases on Spiddal beach last week and and a number of other occasions in the recent past.
Galway Bay Against Salmon Cages (GBASC) were first notified about this illegal dumping on Tuesday 28th of April by a member of the public who was out walking on Spiddal beach on the previous Saturday, but when we went to investigate the carcases had been washed away with the tides and eaten by crabs etc.
Then on Thursday evening 21st of May an Inshore fisherman contacted our PRO Brian Curran to say that he had seen a named individual again illegally dumping farmed salmon carcases off Spiddal pier. The fisherman said he was extremely concerned as these carcases may harbour harmful viruses such as Pancreas Disease or other non listed viruses that may have a detrimental affect on wild fish species in Galway Bay. Inshore fishermen are prohibited from using farm salmon carcases in their lobster / crab pots as bait by regulation due to the dangers of disease transfer.
When Mr Curran went to investigate that evening, he found a large amount of carcases, blue plastic wrapping and a plastic label which identified these carcases as having originated from a Marine Harvest (MH) salmon farm. (See pictures supplied below)
GBASC are concerned that this illegal dumping of these carcases has occurred at a time when salmon smolts are migrating out to sea from the Co Galway Rivers and especially from the Boluisce river at Spiddal as Pancreas Disease is transmitted just as easily from dead fish as well as living fish.
We are told by the Marine Institute that ”they receive occasional samples of wild salmonids and as part of a comprehensive diagnostic screening, these samples are tested for the presence of Pancreas Disease, and that no positives have been detected.” (Letter from Minister Coveneys office 22/5/2015) GBASC question these results as most competent Marine scientists will say that it is near impossible to detect PD in wild salmon, as when they are infected they become weak and are quickly eaten by predators especially salmon / sea trout smolts.

Marine Harvest have admitted in their Stock Market reports for 2014 and for the first quarter of 2015 that they have had outbreaks of the infectious Pancreas Disease on a number of their salmon farms in Ireland.

GBASC have tried under Access to Information on the Environment Regulations (AIE Regulations) Ref :A0051 to find out from the Marine Institute which MH salmon farms had this terrible disease. The Marine Institute said that they couldn’t give us the information as they were advised by MH ”that site specific health and mortality information is commercially sensitive in situations where they share a water body with other competitors.” This statement from MH says a lot for the Coordinated Local Aquaculture Management Systems (CLAMS) operated by BIM, where all stakeholders operating in a bay should cooperate with the local community.
The BIM Explanatory Handbook on C.L.A.M.S. states, ”As part of its commitment to the sustainable aquaculture industry, the C.L.A.M.S. process facilitates the gathering and analysis of data in relation to fish farming. This data is then made available to the local community.”
The people dumping these farmed salmon carcases at Spiddal Pier and other locations around Connemara are breaking the Animal By-products Regulations and those responsible must be tracked down and prosecuted.
GBASC would like to see the following questions answered by the relevant authority dealing with this pollution of our marine environment
What salmon farm did these salmon come from?
Does that salmon farm have Pancreas Disease?
Where were these salmon processed?
Why were these salmon not transported to an approved disposal facility and rendered appropriately?
Mr Brian Curran is asking members of the public to be vigilant and to report sightings of illegal dumping of farmed salmon carcases at or near piers to contact the Sea Fishery Protection Agency at Rossaveal, Tel No:091 572405
Billy Smyth, Chairman Galway Bay Against Salmon Cages
10 Colemans Rd,
Shantalla,
Galway
Phone 0863511628
Brian E. Curran PRO Galway Bay Against Salmon Cages
Aille West, Inverin Co Galway
Mob: 0872509722
Photos attached

Gatheringireland Againstsalmonfarms’s photo.

http://oldrivershannon.com/2015/05/24/parteen-fish-pass/comment-page-1/#comment-1820

We need to change the management of Parteen fish pass

We want the fish pass at Parteen weir to be opened immediately and left open 24 hours a day, 365 days per year. Passage of “wild” fish upstream has to be given absolute priority over brood stock collection. This has to be done immediately and would cost nothing. We have argued this previously here.

We will never have a self-sustaining run of salmon in the Shannon with this kind of management

We have this ridiculous situation where we have a reasonably good fish pass at Parteen which is kept closed until September because it is less work for ESB staff and they don’t have to look after brood stock for more than a couple of months. From September onwards the fish pass remains blocked but the entrance to the outflow from the raceway is opened. Salmon are forced to enter into a small pipe which leads to a raceway where they are held. Salmon don’t like this, and many almost certainly turn back. The ones that enter this pipe and end up in the raceway get stressed. They can be seen bashing themselves off the walls and inlet pipe trying to get out again. They are then subjected to excessive handing, with “wild” fish trucked upstream. Hatchery fish also try to get out of the raceway, suffer injuries and often contract diseases. The wild fish are held in the same raceway so can also acquire infections. Many of the wild salmon are from the Mulkear or Lower River Shannon and just overshot their destination and are subjected to this treatment. These fish along with the kelts then die in front of the Shannon dams. We will never have a self-sustaining run of salmon in the Shannon with this kind of management.

P1030490
Salmon that enter the raceway become stressed and try to jump out of the pipe at the head of the spillway. This is no way to treat “wild” salmon destined for the middle and upper Shannon. Many of these fish are actually from the Lower River Shannon SAC but are trucked upstream after handling and then can’t get back down and die in front of the Shannon dams.

P1030406
This is no way to treat a recovering salmon population. But the pipe into the raceway is closed until September with no way upstream whatsoever.

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We will never have a self-sustaining run of salmon in the Shannon with this kind of management

salmon trapped at parteen
The “wild” salmon which are trucked upstream then die “along with the kelts” in front of the Shannon dams. We will never have a self sustaining run of salmon in the Shannon with this kind of management.

Parteen weir, River Shannon
Many salmon never find the fish pass anyway as they are attracted to the spillway instead. But there is no way upstream whatsoever for salmon migrating during the spring and summer.

The ESB’s River Shannon Salmon Management Programme have been an abject failure by any analysis. There are now less salmon passing though Killaloe on the River Shannon than through the industrialised River Seine in Paris – some 250 km inland on one of Europe’s most polluted and modified rivers and above a major hydroelectric scheme. This is a startling example of the failure of fisheries management programmes on the River Shannon, and highlights the need for real change.

It is a national disgrace that salmon escapement through the Shannon dams has fallen so low

For further reading see these post.

Why are there no salmon in the upper Shannon? : Management of Parteen fish pass
It is a national disgrace that salmon escapement through the Shannon dams has fallen so low ?????? less than 1,000 last year on a river with a conservation escapement target of 45,000 per annum. This is especially poignant when measured by successes on other European Rivers with many more problems than the River Shannon. There can and should be salmon in the upper Shannon. A change in the management of the fish pass at Parteen weir would be a first step towards this and this can be done tomorrow with no cost involved.

Sent from the desk of
Noel Carr Secretary FISSTA
Federation of Irish Salmon & Seatrout Anglers.
Address: Teelin Rd. Carrick. Co. Donegal Office Tel: 00353 749730300
Mobile. 00353872352001
Email. Dgl1@indigo.ie

Great response to our Trout & Salmon piece. Many thanks to all anglers for their support.