To: Minister Eamon Ryan

Minister Eamon Ryan
Dept of Communications, Energy.
and Natural Resources
29-31 Adelaide Road
Dublin 2




Dear Minister Ryan,
We as anglers wish to express our concerns regarding the current state of our national inland fisheries.

There is a ground swell of opinion that salmon angling is in grave danger of becoming extinct because of arbitrary decisions imposed upon our sport without any consultation or discussion with the angler.

We agree in principal with your Departments decision to amalgamate the fisheries boards but we are concerned that the same (mis) management teams within these boards will remain in the newly constructed quango, when there is clearly a need for a root and branch overhaul and the employment of some new people. In the face of the almost catastrophic collapse in returning salmon numbers, fisheries management needs new faces with fresh ideas, with a vision for future angling in Ireland, and the drive to implement it.


During the 2009 salmon season, around the country anglers have noticed a significant upsurge in illegal netting and other forms of poaching on our rivers. We have also noticed fewer fishery officer patrols and checks to counter this activity.


We suggest to you minister that we need more fishery officers on the beat, more patrols to combat illegal netting and poaching, the setting up of a national helpline for reporting illegal fishing, netting, and pollution. We then need this information acted upon as the current system of ringing regional boards invariably leads to no action being taken. The level of illegal netting and poaching is not reflected in the number of cases being brought before the courts, nor in the number of on-the-spot fines, handed out by the regional fisheries officers.


Furthermore, with stocks so low and depleting year-on-year, the incomprehensible issuing, by regional fisheries boards, of snap and draft net salmon licences for our estuaries and rivers MUST be addressed. When the government, in the face of huge international pressure, banned drift netting for salmon they missed the perfect opportunity to cease all interceptory netting. The tiny sum earned by the exchequer in licence fees is a pittance compared to the tourism income generated by the World-class salmon angling we have in Ireland.

Angling tourism has always been hugely important to our national and regional economies, but as stocks diminish, so will the visiting angler cease to come in search of Irish salmon.


We call on the department to transfer the ability of fisheries boards to investigate their own staff and operations over to the Office of the Ombudsman for all complaints against board staff. The current situation of chairmen, CEOs and inspectors investigating their own officers is open to bias and may lead to complaints not being investigated fully.


We urge you as minister to ban fish farming near where juvenile salmon and sea-trout pass during migration. The link between salmon farming and the total collapse of the Wests sea-trout stocks in the late 1980s is a matter of record. Scientific research suggests that the number of wild salmon surviving and returning to spawn decreased by 50\% or greater on average compared to similar rivers with no fish farms. Aquaculture is an important employer in economically challenged areas of the West, but so is angling tourism. There has to be much more thought about the siting of salmon cages so that our precious resource isnt unduly impacted.


Anglers are currently paying a 100\% levy on our rod licence as a Conservation Fee. We feel that this money is being squandered and not put to the correct use. From what we can ascertain, the conservation fee has been spent on fish counters that don't work, and on fleets of new 4x4s. What about habitat improvement or licence buy-outs? We need new thinking on the spending of this money, preferably by people with scientific fisheries experience and not career bureaucrats.


We ask you to explore the possibility of reducing the cost of one and three day rod licenses as the current prices are having a disastrous effect on bringing new anglers into our sport, and acts as a disincentive to the tourist angler. We also urge you to reduce the cost of juvenile licences to attract the youth into our sport and ensure that salmon angling has a future.


Minister Ryan, with you in your current office and with your impressive green credentials, the angling community has potentially the most sympathetic and understanding minister in many years. We urge you to address our concerns to ensure that Ireland remains at the top of the list for visiting angling tourists and to ensure that nationally, angling remains strong.

saveourangling@gmail.com