Sir, - Michael Viney (Another Life, March 20th) implies that pike culling on our western lakes will keep the chickens of environmental vandalism from coming home to roost on these few remaining wild trout and salmon fisheries. I do not agree with this status being afforded to pike culling, nor with Michael Viney and the WRFB in their assumption that the pike is a primary part of this complex problem. I disagree not least because previous gill-netting records show a six-fold increase in the unit effort required to catch a trout, coupled with a 250 per cent increase in the number of ever-smaller and ever-hungrier pike. Gill-netting is an example, though none is needed to re-make the point, of science and expertise being mis-used to bring us to the point of the collapse of a natural resource such as is represented by these lakes.
I would ask Michael Viney, and the fishery authorities he supports so robustly, the following: What overall effect on the salmonid populations of the western lakes has each of the following "developments" produced?
The failure to restore the habitat of much of our lowland rivers in over 20 years since we destroyed these trout-breeding areas by our drainage works; this failure, despite the expenditure of millions of pounds by the relevant regulatory body responsible for inland fishers;
Our failure as a generation to meaningfully reduce the annual phosphate loading on these lakes, be it of domestic or agricultural origin;
The near laissez-faire overgrazing and conifer plantation in those mountain areas where the last of our undredged rivers are located;
The failure of our regulatory bodies to put in place an assisted salmonid spawning programme adequate to service a 70,000 acre-plus fishery - this despite the proven worth of such initiatives, much central funding being available for same, and over 20 years in which to complete such works;
The killing of those wild trout remaining in our lakes be it for sport, for sale or for use as tokens in the allocation of prizes in lucrative fishing competitions;
The killing of our surviving wild trout through our use of gillnets placed in these lakes by the regulatory body charged with protecting the fish stocks and the fish habitat.
Our problem on these lakes is not pike but our ongoing failure to regulate and trim the worst excesses of our various factional interest groups, if only to benefit a common interest in the quality of our drinking water. It is our immaturity, our love of expediency over worthwhile sacrifices that is destroying our environment. Pollution, pike, phosphate are merely the weapons that are damaging the eco-system of the Corrib catchment. But it is we who are wielding those weapons unchecked by the regulatory bodies we have charged with the responsibility of protecting our shared environment. The char are virtually extinct on Corrib due to pollution, the salmon are scarcer and smaller, the eels are being "hammered" and the perch also seem to have virtually disappeared. Now the pike are being gill-netted and soon the trout will be hung up on gibbets at competition time.
Our rivers are largely canalised and our lakes are eutrophying. It is possible that this state of affairs, this never-ending killing and "taking from the system" makes some sense to someone, somewhere. It makes no sense to me and I fish on these still wonderful lakes, in every month of the year. - Yours, etc.,
Michael Malone, Kilkeeran, Ballinrobe, Co Mayo.