Connacht’s trout anglers are launching an all-out assault on the pike ahead of a major review about the management of the species, which will determine the eco-system of Lough Corrib for generations.
The Connacht Angling Council is pushing for Inland Fisheries Ireland (IFI) to undertake an immediate pike cull and impose severe penalties for the importation of live bait in its new policy due to be implemented next year.
They want the IFI to maintain its bylaws for gill netting and electro fishing of pike for the pike spawning season and are calling for a closed season for all fishing to be introduced from September 30 to February 15.
Ireland has twelve out of the thirteen EU classified ecologically significant brown trout fisheries. Pike control measures are only implemented on seven of these twelve fisheries.
In its campaign launch last night at the Boat Inn in Oughterard, the council’s chairperson Martin Kinneavy warned that wild brown trout stocks in west of Ireland lakes – including Lough Corrib in Galway and the Mask, Carra, Conn and Cullin in Mayo – are facing wipe out due to “a proliferation of predator pike”.
“Predator pike are eating wild brown trout stocks like never before. Predator pike are far more prolific breeders than wild brown trout and a predator pike will eat as much as 40lbs of wild brown trout per year. Stocks of larger, catchable wild brown trout have diminished rapidly in western waters due to the presence of predator pike,” he insisted.
Wild brown trout angling is reportedly worth €148m per year to the Irish economy. The combined annual expenditure of salmon, sea trout and brown trout anglers is €263 million – compared to €75 million for pike anglers.
“Wild brown trout fisheries are unique eco-systems and need to be protected by law; otherwise, we are staring at a wipe out of wild brown trout. These fisheries should be managed exclusively for the benefit of wild brown trout.”
The trout anglers believe the IFI should establish a full-time office in Galway to deal with issues around wild brown trout, salmon, seatrout, and eels as the West of Ireland is a renowned breeding ground for all of these species.
The recent appearance of non-native Pacific pink salmon in west of Ireland waters shows that a fresh approach to the management of western inland fisheries is crucial, he said.
An interim report by the IFI is due before Christmas, with a final report expected in the new year when an updated policy will be implemented.
The pike anglers argue that the IFI is relying on flawed scientific information as justification for pike control in wild brown trout fisheries. They insist that a PhD study undertaken by University College Dublin in collaboration with the IFI proves that the pike are in fact native to Ireland and that they do not primarily feed on salmonoids – both cornerstones of the IFI current policy.
In its submission to the review, pike anglers want funding presently used by the IFI to remove pike to instead be directed to improving the aquatic habitat for all species.
The pike lobby claim that the removal of pike has resulted in an explosion of invasive species such as roach and perch which breed in millions and compete for the same food sources as trout.
They say brown trout populations are suffering instead from over exploitation by anglers, habitat degradation, pollution and poaching.
The trout anglers insist that that no scientific literature has ever been produced which shows that pike have a benign influence on wild salmonoid fisheries. They contend the Corrib roach population has remained very stable in the lake since 1996 according to IFI stock surveys as roach are the main diet for the large Ferox trout.
John Conneely, director of the Western River Basin District in the IFI, told the Connacht Tribune last February that pike appeared in the Oughterard lakes sometime after 2008 and “had impacted very severely on the salmon and trout on the lakes between Oughterard and Maam”.
During the campaign, ‘Pike are Predators – Save our Wild Brown Trout’, trout anglers will be encouraged to contact Oireachtas representatives ahead of the publication of the review.
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