You don't value it until you've lost it. And then it takes a long time to get it back - if you ever can. And it becomes something like a matter of national prestige. And millions can be spent in the effort. We are taking about the salmon - in other countries. With us, it is still a natural, free-running phenomenon, a providential gift. So far. Look at the saga of bringing salmon back into the Thames system. Not so long ago, an angling correspondent in an English newspaper questioned the possibility of realising the scheme fully and permanently. But it's not only in Britain. A few months ago a French newspaper had a headline: IN THE YEAR 2000 WE'LL BE FISHING FOR SALMON IN THE GARONNE. An angling spokesman is quoted as being confident. Down the years, dams of one sort or another, chiefly for electricity works, have rendered the huge waterways of the Lotet-Garonne impassible. Now a series of fish passes has been installed above and beyond what exists, and the Garonne, the Tarn, the Aveyron and the Dordogne may come to life again.
The shad has taken advantage of the freer access, but the salmon is "more cautious about leaving the Atlantic for the estuary of the Garonne." But things are moving. In 1991, only seven salmon were taken in the Garonne God help us. The figure in 1995 rose to 135. The Dordogne went from nine in 1991 to 375 in 1994. A lot of money has gone into this: from the State, from the EU and from the departments themselves. But it's a long haul.
Bright note from the West. Nearly a score of salmon seen in a small spawning stream high in the Galway mountains. One fish, says our friend, standing out like a battleship in cleaving its way through the shallower waters. Beside the better pools, the spraints of otters. Life goes on.
PS: Was not one salmon caught on the Liffey on opening day, January 1st? There's usually a greater press hoo-ha. Heard that one was caught in the opening hours at the Drownes in Donegal.