In the first experiment of its kind on an Irish river, the Blackwater Salmon Development Group in Co Cork has concluded negotiations with owners of draft nets and salmon traps who have agreed to cease netting on the river for a five-year period.
If the experiment is successful, an extra 10,000 salmon will be able to make their way up the Blackwater in future years. At a news conference in Cork yesterday the group said the owners of draft nets and traps would be compensated to the value of their annual recorded catch.
The State will supply 50 per cent of the funding required, with the other 50 per cent being provided by the group through voluntary contributions from anglers, including a fee of £5 per licence as well as a further £5 for the first salmon landed by each licensed angler. The group says that in the early years of the century the Blackwater had an abundance of fish but that in the past decade the annual rod catch had declined from 10,000 to 5,000 salmon. The main reason for the decline was netting of salmon both in the open sea and within the Blackwater estuary as fish returned to breed in their home waters.
Throughout most of the past decade almost 80 per cent of the Blackwater catchment was fished commercially, resulting in fewer fish for anglers and fewer breeding stocks.
The group also claims evidence of deterioration in the quality of both spawning grounds and juvenile feed areas in the headwaters of the Blackwater. This has been caused largely by bank erosion leading to clay and peat deposits on the gravel beds.
Attempts are now being made by the Blackwater Salmon Development Group and the Southern Fisheries Board to protect and consolidate the river banks in critical areas. Last year £140,000 was spent in this area.