AN AMBITIOUS programme to regenerate natural salmon runs in the upper Lee will be unveiled at a public meeting tomorrow night.
In the mid-1950s, the flooding of the Lee valleys to provide two huge hydroelectric dams destroyed much of the salmon fishing in one of the country’s largest river catchments. Now the ESB is to play a prominent role in the regeneration of the fishery.
The Lee, which rises near Gougane Barra in the mountains of the Cork-Kerry border area and runs 56 miles into Cork city, once had an estimated 15,000 adult salmon returning to the river to spawn each season.
Attempts by the ESB to restock have not proved successful and there is now no significant natural run of spawning fish in the upper Lee, above the Carrigadrohid dam, or to some of the tributaries.
Studies undertaken by the electricity board and the fisheries board have shown salmon fishing – still some of the best in Ireland – is now confined to an eight-mile stretch of the lower Lee between Iniscarra dam and Cork city.
Aidan Barry, chief executive of the South Western Regional Fisheries Board, said the river historically boasted excellent runs of salmon.
“Our aim is to restore salmon stocks to healthy numbers within 50 years.
“What we are proposing is very long term and visionary, many of us will not see it,” he told a meeting of the fisheries board in Killarney.
The programme, beginning in 2010, will set down conservation limits and the return of salmon which are currently non-existent to the Sullane river, an important tributary of the Lee.
It will also involve improving fish passages but the principal overall aim is to ensure the free movement of salmon smolts and adults by 2025.
A number of bodies will be involved in the plan, including the ESB, the Central Fisheries Board, and the Marine Institute, as well as the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources.
Other migratory species such as the eel will also benefit from the programme.
The meeting to outline the project will take place at 7pm at the fisheries board centre in Farnanes on December 17th.