Almost all the trout stocks in the Shannon have been wiped out because of water pollution, which is beginning to impact on the coarse fish stocks, it was claimed yesterday.
Mr Matt Nolan, a senior fisheries inspector with the Shannon Regional Fisheries Board, said records kept by the board showed that fewer and fewer specimen coarse fish were being taken.
Mr Nolan told a conference entitled "The Shannon Waters in Crisis" at the Hodson Bay Hotel outside Athlone that virtually all the trout had disappeared from the main flow of the Shannon, although they could still be found in tributaries.
"Coarse fishermen are also turning their backs on the river, because stocks of pike, bream, tench and other fish are also in decline", Mr Nolan claimed.
He said that the purpose of the conference was to spell out how bad the situation had become and to seek a basis for immediate action. "We are seeking a ban on detergents containing phosphates", he said. "If we remove those, we get rid of 10 per cent of the problem."
Mr Nolan said that the Minister for the Environment and Local Government, Mr Dempsey, had been informed of the problem with detergents containing phosphorus and had promised an "announcement" in the coming weeks.
"We are hoping that announcement will be a ban on detergents, because this would be a great start and would help the fightback before it becomes too late", Mr Nolan added.
The Minister, who opened the conference, said the National Plan provided for a major capital investment in the improvement of the environment.
The EPA report on Water Quality in Ireland, 1995-1997, had indicated that some 32 per cent of the Shannon river channel was affected by slight or moderate pollution, Mr Dempsey said. This represented an increase of some 50 per cent on the previous decade, and excessive phosphorus was the main threat.
In a paper read to the conference in his absence, Mr Liam Cashman, of the Environment Directorate-General of the EU, said it was legal action by the EU which had forced the adoption of the 1998 phosphorus regulations in Ireland.
However, positive developments here had been countered by less positive ones, including whether or not local authorities had the will or the staff to track down the sources of phosphorus pollution.