Wels, Zander and Barbel in Ireland

Deagánach666

Would you support the introduction of Wel'scatfish, Zander and Barbel all European species into Ireland but stocked in stock lakes and not released into the wild?

Jim_Hodge

No. No Point.

Zzippy

Absolutely not.

Bogwoppit

Water temperatures are a bit low for wels to thrive and probably even breed so they could be a candidate for enclosed fisheries. They’d be pretty unlikely to colonise or spread.

Barbel and zander would thrive in our waterways so absolutely not, no way. If you want to fish for them then off you pop over the sea.

The potential for them to absolutely destroy our native fisheries is huge and anyone even considering it should be flogged!

The only way any of these would ever actually get stocked would be by an uneducated idiot through a criminal act with no care for the environment or fellow anglers.

spaceHopper

No, they would escape into rives and destroy our native fish stocks.

alex41

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058246938/wels-zander-and-barbel-in-ireland

Yes please

alex41

Yes zandart ,barbel .cat fish

spaceHopper

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122591031#Comment_122591031

Barbel live in rivers, so how would you contain them to a lake. If Zander got into the wild and spread they would decimate stock of wild trout in rivers and lakes. Don't mess with nature it know more about the natural balance than we do.

Barbel (fish) - Wikipedia

beer enigma

No to all of them, fish stock in Ireland are in enough trouble.

Mate of mine runs a website in Italy where Wels were introduced in the 50's and have decimated a lot of the fishing, so much so that the government is funding a removal scheme.

I think this from his website is enough to warrant a big NO for stocking them in our waters - excuse the spelling but he's Italian and I didn't want to change his words.

"Wels catfish is an invasive alien species in Italy. It adapts to our freshwater, where it reproduces, it reaches big dimension in a short time, it is active mainly at night (when native fish are not active), it is a voracious predator, it eats everything and when it reaches a certain size it has not competitors or predators. All these features allow the species to survive, reproduce and spread in the water courses in which it had been introduced, making Wels catfish a menace for native fish species. Where Wels catfish is present, native species decrease. Wels catfish is considered the mainly menace to native salmonids in Sharesalmo area, for this reason some project activities are about Wels catfish."

Lewis_Benson

No, Zander and catfish would compete with our native apex predator, the pike, and completely upset the balance.

Don't mess with nature, let her look after herself.

Timfy

A no to Wels and Zander, both have proven track records of completely taking over ecosystems, but Barbel are a whole different, ahem, kettle of fish. How I miss fishing fast flowing water on the likes of the Hampshire Avon in the UK for Barbel. It's like hooking a torpedo… much better sport than a muddy lake trout or a €400 a day, just to hang out with the hoorays, Salmon.

Bogwoppit

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122651269#Comment_122651269

I think you’re showing your roots there.
We don’t have to pay vast sums to fish for salmon in this country, €120 for the year for me and it’s very very good. Better than anything in the uk.

Barbel are great sport to fish for but they don’t belong here. I’ve fished for them on the wye, usk and Severn. The damage they do to the salmon and trout redds is huge. Hoovering up the eggs.
No, just no. Utter nonsense to even consider it.

Meirleach

No to all, we did enough damage letting the roach get everywhere.

Having said that, I sometimes wish we had ended up with some grayling, something to fly fish for during the winter.