Author: Noel Carr

It appears that communication on one side of IFA Aquaculture office up in Dublin has broken down with the other side according to Ritchie Flynn and Jerry Gallagher’s press statements in this months edition of the Irish Skipper. One says ‘salmon farms withstood unprecedented storms’ while the other seeks ??????5m more state funding “to deal with the severe weather battering suffered over the past 2 months they want to know they are facing into those storms having done everything they can to put in place the strongest, safest and most secure farming equipment to protect their stocks and ensure minimal damage to farms or the immediate surrounding environment”.
What damage could that be? Tell BIM as argue there is no potential marine environment a damage when FISSTA question their EIS on new applications. Time for IFA top brass to confess to Minister Coveney that salmon farming is not worth the food scare risk to the rest of their hard won export and Harvest 2020 plan.

Constructive meeting of GALWAY BAY AGAINST SALMON CAGES in Menlo park hotel last Sunday with many groups attending to voice support for the many campaigns against Minister Coveney’s ten fish farm plan.

Below is an extract from GBASC press statement.

Issued by Brian E. Curran PRO Galway Bay Against Salmon Cages Mob: 0872509722.

Press Release

Group meet in Galway to halt expansion plans of B.I.M.

A joint meeting of angling and environmental groups from all over Ireland met in the Menlo Park Hotel, Galway on Sunday 26th January to discuss a national strategy to defeat plans to expand open salmon cages along the western seaboard. Delegates heard that B.I.M. is actively engaged in the preparation of further Environmental Impact Statements for nine other salmon farming sites in Galway, (2) Inishturk in Mayo and Goal in Donegal.

It is believed that the capacity of these installations will be up to 14.4m salmon each, fully automated with few employed. Serious damage is expected to occur to the livelihood of inshore fishermen as the use of pesticides to kill diseases and parasites from such huge intensive numbers of farmed salmon, will kill small lobsters, crab and shrimp.

Anglers and tourist interests expressed grave concerns that their sectors also would be decimated and major job losses and loss of income would occur as all salmon rivers within a 30k radius of cages would have their young salmon returning to sea, eaten alive by lice from salmon installations. This has already happened to sea trout in Connemara, Donegal and Kerry, locations where salmon are caged in the marine.

Delegates questioned why the fin fish aquaculture sector, which has the Irish Farmers Association support and backing, is permitted to operate without controls. There was anger that on land, no farmer was permitted to pollute waterways with waste and pesticides yet the marine was being degraded by the activities of the salmon farming industry. Plans will now be put in place to increase public awareness of the folly of salmon cages in the marine at the expense of existing inshore fishing, angling and tourism jobs. Ends

Picture right to left :Tommy Casserly, Billy Smyth, Brian Curran,

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Representatives attending the meeting included:

Galway Bay Against Salmon Cages

Federation of Irish Salmon and Sea Trout Anglers

Salmon Watch Ireland

Save Bantry Bay

Galway Bay Protection Group

Dodder Anglers

National Anglers Representative Association

Carra Mask Corrib Water Protection Group

Friends of the Irish Environment

No Salmon Farms at Sea

Inshore Fishermen representatives

Fisheries managers from Boluisce and Costello Fisheries

Corrib Anglers Federation/ Trout Angling Federation of Ireland

B&B owners and tourist / food interests

End ??????

Brian E. Curran PRO Galway Bay Against Salmon Cages

https://www.facebook.com/noel.carr.5/posts/668147256557978

Thanks John Buckley for posting on my timeline and bringing this letter to the notice of FISSTA. Just to confirm that on 25th November 2013 the CEO of IFI Ciaran Byrne at the National Inland Fisheries Forum in Athlone presented their intention to impose a state angling contribution or what we understood to be a new rod license replacing our present salmon one at a reduced rate for us. Following intense and a united lobbying from both FISSTA and TAFI this proposal was withdrawn by Ciaran Byrne at a specially convened meeting on Dec 8th in Lucan Spa Hotel under instruction from Minister of State Fergus O’Dowd TD. This impasse is now removed and discussions are ongoing on the drafting of the new fisheries legislation without any reference to a state angling contribution. The FISSTA submission to IFI DCENR and the Minister repeats our long established policy of protest against a Rod license imposed on us by legislation. But we must pay one to fish or we would be breaking the law. We have campaigned for many years for the state to remove the unfair and anti competitive license to allow us compete with license free Scotland for to increase tourism revenue. Instead, and at a time when state management should have protected our sector to flourish as the driftnets came off, we got penalised as rivers closed and our Rod licence cost trebled over a 4 year period to 2007 to ??????120 losing over 70% of our salmonid members to non license angling waters. To this day, our clubs are just surviving from kind donations and hard fundraising work to pay for private and state waters to fish every year. Along with the major threats of pollution, salmon farms, commercial netting in estuaries, we continue our campaigning to protect our angling rights to waters we have fished for generations. We expect IFI and the state to protect our wild Atlantic salmon and sport which is valued overall at ??????755m to our economy and supporting over 10,000 jobs. Sadly, we find ourselves alone in our campaigns to survive and no additional number of state rod licenses sold will change the present policy that is firmly wiping out the sport that we hold dear. With over 90 of our 153 rivers still closed to taking a salmon or seatrout for the pot, our fisheries are bleeding to death and require urgent management action. So, we need new legislation to turn it around fast and we value the support of our angling clubs who endorsed our policies on 24th November 2013 at our last agm and every agm to date. We communicate with and speak for all our clubs on the future of our sport and stocks. We withdrew from state funded Angling Council of Ireland and take no money from them or any other state body that try to silence or influence us against serving the angler on their water. At international level, FISSTA punch well above our weight and were honoured to to be voted to present the NGO statement to the nineteen salmon countries in attendance at the 30th Nasco conference last June. Fissta organised over 20 public awareness events last year against Minister Coveneys ten mega salmon farm plan and have the support of Nasf Chairman Orri Vigfusson who we invited here to lead our Galway city public demo last March 2nd 2013. That is why we lead all the charges against bad fisheries planning and mismanagement wherever we find it and we ask all clubs with salmon and seatrout in them to register with FISSTA for 2014. In Donegal, both Federations campaign against IFI policy in the taking of our waters and the legal challenge is ongoing to the Supreme Court at present. We encourage all FISSTA clubs (if they can afford it) to cross affiliate with TAFI and support the conservation of our wild stocks while we still have a some left.