Salmon and Trout Run In Lucan, Co Dublin Ireland, River Liffey November 2010

Here is an Oireachtas Report from the Eastern Regional Fishery Board.

http://www.oireachtas.ie/documents/committees29thdail/commmarnatressalmonnettingsubmissions/document26.doc

The thing you have to know, is that salmon returning from the ocean arrive at Donegal, then they swim along the coastline down and around the west coast at Ballina, Connemara, and Galway, then past Limerick to Kerry, and around past Cork , and north past Wexford and so get to the east coast rivers.

The fish turn left into their river as they come to it. The east coast salmon have the longest journey to make.

And out from every headland the drift nets were set and waiting.

Now take a look at the graph on top of page 2.
It shows the tagged Liffey salmon and where they were caught.
See where the tags were recovered.
Look at the numbers go down as they try to get back around the coast to reproduce, until none are left.

That's the big reason why the east coast rivers suffered most from drift nets, and why there are almost no salmon, or extremely few, in the Liffey.

Our politicians legalised those nets for votes from netting families, in another episode of destruction on their list of stupid decisions.

At least the nets are illegal once again, but the fish, they are eradicated, and the survivors are below the necessary amount to regenerate. So it will take a long time to undo what was done.

The next significant problems for Liffey salmon:
2/3rds of all Liffey water is removed for city use, and some fish passes dry out completely preventing upstream migration.
Next: the weirs and Leixlip dam, but they are down the list, and when salmon were there they managed to live with the dam.
Next pollution: the lower river is used as a spawning ground, and filter bed silt tends to cover and block off the spawning gravels from the flow.

But it was drift nets that did it in.

vilkovo wrote: »

interesting report,

we had a good run this year, (have a look at the video above) so hopefully..

Yes. Your post contained good news vilkovo.
Thanks for posting it.

Not global warming I guess.

Before the nets the fish used to run in January until May, with smaller fish running July, and September. Those were targeted by the netters. The weather gets bad in the Autumn, making the sea dangerous for small fishing boats, and there were fewer nets laid then.
So genetic selection over thirty years has created a run of small salmon that come back so late that they have a better chance of survival from drift nets. Their small size is so that some that get caught can get right through the net meshes. They used to be 9lbs/4.5kgs average in the 1980-1980 period.

I've cast a line over it .... once or twice.

For 40 years!