Madam, - Your Editorial of October 26th supports the complete banning of drift-netting for wild salmon from 2007 onwards.
Your analysis ignores the fact that if this proposal is endorsed by the Government it will result in the collapse of a long-established Irish fish smoking and processing industry based exclusively on drift-netted wild fish. Wild salmon caught by other means in estuaries and rivers suffer from significant flavour problems due to poor quality water which, in the circumstances of the essential production processes that have to be followed in the industry, render them unsuitable for smoking. This pivotal point is recognised by the expert report (7.8, page 53). Irreparable loss of high-quality markets, gained at great effort and expense over many years, will be a direct and immediate result of the ban that you recommend.
Drift-netting for wild salmon should be allowed to continue from 2007 onwards on a limited basis in those areas where stock numbers are well above sustainable levels and where the impact on possible mixed stock would be minimal.
Smoked Irish wild salmon - the icon of the Irish fishing industry, and arguably of the Irish food industry - cannot be allowed to disappear in one fell swoop. Some accommodation must be found.
Moreover, there may be more fish in the sea, and in the rivers, than we know about. Wild salmon do not always come to our shores in the traditional months of June and July. This year more than 5,000 fish were counted going up one major river system in May, and in another river system wild salmon were seen in great abundance in September waiting for rising water levels to help them on their way up to their spawning grounds.
By the way, official reports from Scotland show that predators take three times as many wild salmon as do all catching methods combined. - Yours, etc,
PETER DUNN, Sydenham Road, Dublin 4.
Madam, - I wish to correct the impression given in a report by Lorna Siggins (The Irish Times, October 26th) that anglers are opposed to the report of the Independent Salmon Group.
On the contrary, the angling bodies listed below fully welcome this report, despite its implications for anglers, and urge the Government to implement it immediately. - Yours, etc,
BOB WEMYSS, Secretary of Stop Salmon Drift Nets Now and South East Salmon Federation, .Jerpoint Hill, Thomastown, Co. Kilkenny; also on behalf of: National Anglers Representative Association; Salmon & Seatrout Recreational Anglers of Ireland; Trout Angling Federation of Ireland; Cork Angling Federation; Kerry Angling Federation; East Salmon Federation; South East Salmon Federation; Midlands Salmon Angling Association.
Lorna Siggins writes: The Federation of Irish Salmon and Sea Trout Anglers, which was quoted in Thursday's report, claims to be the largest angling representative body, with 90 affiliated clubs.