Category: News

*DONEGAL GAME ANGLERS FEDERATION (DGAF) INVITE ANGLERS ON A ‘SUNDAY
MORNING DANDER’ ON THE GWEEBARRA*

*TIME: 10 AM ON SUNDAY 6^th JULY 2014*

*VENUE: AT DOOCHARY BRIDGE*

*WHY? : TO PROMOTE ONE OF THE MOST BEAUTIFUL ANGLING WATERS IN IRELAND
SO THAT THEY ARE MADE AWARE OF THE KEY ISSUES IN DISPUTE*

*WHO IS INVITED: ANYONE WHO WANTS TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THE GWEEBARRA
DISPUTE – *

*Ever since the attempted eviction of the local anglers on the Gweebarra River was resisted in a campaign that started in 2006, the long running dispute for angling rights continues to intrigue all who hold their sort and angling dear to their hearts. *

*The planned and regular angling outing on the Gweebarra river have been underway since 2006 and the regular members of the DGAF and especially the local clubs, Rosses Anglers and Fintown Anglers Associations have led the campaign. *

*Next Sunday morning, July 6^th another gathering will take place to inform and update all attending, including a delegation from both FISSTA and TAFI who support this campaign to protect our angling from state takeovers. *

*Issued by DGAF PRO Noel Carr, Teelin Rd Carrick, Co. Donegal. Tel 074
9730300 *_*dgl1@indigo.ie* _**

*& Sean O’ Baoill 074 9521227 *

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

*Background to the Gweebara River Protest- County Donegal.*

The Gweebara is a spring salmon river in Co Donegal. It is approximately sixteen miles long, entering the sea at a village called Doohary. A famous High Court case was fought in 1906 which resulted in the local netsmen on the estuary winning the rights to fish from Marquis Connyngham and Lord Mayo.

Since that time the river has been open to all anglers, providing that they possessed a State license. In that year the Northern Regional Fishery Board laid claim to the river and took it into state control, claiming that it owned all the fishing rights along its’ entire length. The Board then colluded with a group of people to set up an angling club, commencing with a small membership of approximately ten people.

This membership was comprised of holiday home owners *and others from outside the district,*along with the netsmen who fished the estuary. The elected secretary of this group was not and is not an angler.

Whenever anglers from nearby villages, particularly Fintown and the Rosses, who had fished the river for decades, applied for membership they were refused on the basis that they were not within the selected catchment. The new club signed an agreement with the Fishery Board, in which it accepted conditions that totally mitigated against local anglers, even members, in terms of access to the river. For example, during the spring run period, visiting anglers have 19 rods on the river on Thur — Sunday; members have 3 rods. The position is reversed on Mon –Wednesday of each week. So if you wish to fish your local river you
most likely have to take days off work. Some anglers who have fished the river for over 50 years have been refused membership and now have to pay a daily permit which will increase once this plan is in place.

The clubs within the Donegal Game Angling Federation (DGAF) protested the moment this agreement, which was negotiated in secret, became known.

In response, the Board immediately imposed a boycott on the new
Federation Committee and has refused to meet with the anglers
representative body for almost three years, ignoring the fact that the affiliated clubs wrote letters asking that they be represented by the Federation. In addition the Board refused to issue a copy of the agreement to the Federation and has also ignored requests from the Federations’ solicitors to provide evidence of their ownership of the fishing rights. In actual fact, following the signing of the agreement, the Board despatched two people around the local landowners, persuading them to sign over their rights on the river for periods up to ten years.

At a subsequent local meeting with the Board CEO and his staff, the land owners suggested that the deal should be set aside and a new approach be adopted. The Fishery Board personnel refused and left the meeting, stating that “the agreement stood”.

The anger was such that local anglers defied the Board and protested by fishing the river without purchasing the new permit and many are being prosecuted at this point in time. The Chairman of the Federation, at the behest of the clubs, has made several attempts to engage the Board in dialogue. All requests were met with silence but instead, in August, the Board applied to the High Court in Dublin for injunctions against named anglers and officers of the Federation. This action by the Board, designed to put the voluntary organisation in extreme financial difficulty, had to be defended by the Federation. The High Court judge opened the case by asking had there been any attempt to resolve this dispute through dialogue at local level. Following the arguments presented, the Judge *refused to injunct the anglers and instead he appointed a mediator, *informing both sides that they would
be well advised to use his services or face even further “ruinous costs”.

That is the position that pertains today. Mediation had been accepted by both sides, something that could have happened three years ago had the Board not chosen to act in a very undemocratic way and before massive costs were incurred on both sides. The Federation feels totally vindicated in that all it ever wanted was the opportunity to present its case. /*However, that is small consolation in light of the financial burden that it now faces as their Supreme Court appeal is now underway to defend an angling right to waters that has been fished for generations. The national groundwell of support for the Rosses and Fintown Angling Clubs campaign under the direction of the Donegal Game Anglers Federation is viewed as a test case by the national federations of TAFI and FISSTA’s 60,000 strong angling membership to resist the
undemining of our volunteer club management of their own local waters on every river in Ireland. */

SECRETARY : MR. NOEL CARR, Teelin Road, Carrick, Co. Donegal. Tel/Fax 074 9730300
EMAIL:dgl1@indigo.ie WEBSITE:WWW.FISSTA.COM

NO WATER SUPPLY FOR LOCALS AS ALL IS SENT TO SEA – FOR TO TREAT SALMON FARMS

FISSTA – The Federation of Irish Salmon and Seatrout Anglers have called on the Minister for Commuications, Energy and Natural Resources to protect our wild Atlantic salmon from the Government plan to place ten new mega farms along the west coast of Ireland starting with the first application at Inis Oirr in Galway Bay.
FISSTA Chairman Paul Lawton said that “The implications of such a plan will put enormous pressure on our fresh water resources as the present high temperature of our salt waters requires fish farm staff to draw water in well boats to treat diseased farmed salmon in Kilkieran, Clare Island and Donegal Bay at present. Sadly, the water is being taken from our present publicly treated water supply at a time when the storage levels are at the lowest due to the fine weather.” Lakes in Donegal have been piped dry in the past and last week a three mile long pipe was placed in Loughanmore near Kilkieran to supply fresh water to treat AGD diseased fish without the knowledge of the local community.

FISSTA’s Donegal branch members have observed the Marine Harvest commissioned tankers drawing water from the Killybegs public water supply on a 24 hour basis to supply the well boats at the new pier or drive up to 250km round trip to Mulroy Bay or Fanad with permission from Donegal County Council for what is understood to be for a very high fee. Residents on the roads near the route that the largre tankers are passing have objected to such traffic at nightime hours as the well boats are bound by tide deadlines. Residents of all parts of Killybegs have lodged complaints with their public representatives due to the deterioration in quality of the water being supplied in their taps and many fear that the huge industrial abstraciton of their treated water is being to well boats instead of their town supply. Donegal County Council decline to respond to these charges and defer resident queries to an Irish Water call centre number in Cork, where there is never a possibility of a ‘local knowledge explanation’. This generous facilitation of publicly treated supply of our water by Donegal County Council was acknowldeged by Marine Harvest management last year as an emergency measure to save farmed stock in net cages in Mulroy Bay and Fanad. Since then, more fish were put in cages as far away as Clare Island with the intention to draw Killybegs water on a regular basis, but always in an emergency situation to treat the diseased farmed fish that suffer from the AGD or Amoebic Gill Disease. This disease requires the fish to be immersed in fresh cold water for a period in the well boat before transferring them back to net cages in the salt water. However, this does not eradicate the sealice from their skin and record mortality levels of up to 75 sealice were recorded on some fish stocks in Mulroy Bay according to the state sealice monitoring records by the Marine Institute.

FISSTA Chairman Paul Lawton stated that “the time has come to review all existing and especially new salmon farming applications including and especially the BIM Galway Bay application for 15,000 ton salmon farming licenses in view of the massive demand for the freshwater supplies to keep fish alive during the Summer months when salt water temperatures exceed up to 22 degrees, against the usual 12 degrees for normal farming conditions.”

Ends

NOTE TO EDITOR

FISSTA are an all Ireland angling representative body and the voice of over 20,000 wild salmon and seatrout members in up to 90 affiliated clubs located on the main Irish angling waterways. Many FISSTA registered members fish for other species such as wild brown trout and also pursue the many outdoor nature based sports including shooting and hunting. To ensure our voice is heard more clearly, FISSTA cooperate and assist other organisations in protecting our countryside way of life. FISSTA have signed an agreed Memorandum of Understanding with our shooting colleagues in the NARGC.
FISSTA were established in 1986 as an effective lobby group to improve and assist the lot of the Irish angler. Local anglers who want to develop and conserve their fishery need the help to get started and FISSTA have assisted many anglers to organise themselves into formally registered clubs on their local waters and by providing the most competitively priced insurance scheme that protects the personal assets of club officers and our registered membership.
We campaign for anglers rights and conservation of wild salmonid stocks. We seek fair access to angling waters for the local club angler at a reasonable cost and campaign for the right for a 7 year secure tenure for all Irish angling clubs leasing state waters.
As an umbrella body for anglers it is a strong voice for the conservation of salmon both nationally and internationally. Our motto is “Committed to Conservation” and continue to work to achieve the abundant return of the wild Atlantic salmon to our waters and our work has been acknowledged worldwide. In December 2007, the Icelandic President awarded the Knight’s Cross for the many years of support for the wild Atlantic salmon.
FISSTA continue to campaign for the wild Atlantic salmon to return to abundance and the issues now are the increase of draft netting, pollution from fish farms, and development of our salmonid habitat. We seek new members who support clean water, the sport of angling and saving the wild Atlantic salmon.

What a programme? Full marks to the Albert Titterington team as the first of the 2014 Great Game Faris of Ireland kicks off tomorrow. Everything looking top class for this weekend’s Game and Country Fine Food Fair at Shane’s Castle. The programme is packed with events and FISSTA will be there to promote their campaigns against the ten mega fish farm plan and the for the protection of our anglers rights on the Gweebarra River.

Just to clarify!

Our offices have been getting calls from confused members travelling to Antirim Town to Shanes Castle who have seen notices and may see signs tomorrow for a ‘Lough Fish Fest’ in Tyrone – this is an event that the Loughmacrory Community Development Association have organised to mark the opening of their new sporting Complex and is a seperate event to the Shane’s Castle Game, Fine Food and Country Fair that attracts thousands of visitors.