Back in the month of June, 2021, the now head of Business at the IFI, gave Eamon Ryan a briefing to read out in the Dail. This briefing was the answer to a question by TD Paul McAuliffe. Now the question was a good one, basically questioning the tagging system from the river Maine. It was a question that can be easily answered and it was. The magic is in detail. More questions are coming and I will keep everyone updated but if what Eamon said on that day was right then we have nothing to worry about. Cameras have been operating on the river Maine fish counter since 2009 that is what he said. You can find that response down as I have screen shot it for everyone to read. Now I believe that the cameras have not been operating since 2009 but I am not certain. What I think is this. The scientific group set up in 2010 recommended that only verified counter data was required to keep the Castlemaine fishery open. They were very straight about that. The question Paul asked on that day could be asked again but in a different context. What he should have asked was that if Eamon thinks the conservation limit procedure was a viable one and did it lead to the conservation of Salmon or the demise of Salmon? Are logbooks a fact based way of conserving salmon or could logbooks be manipulated to keep rivers open? Can people be trusted in conserving salmon? Up to now have we as citizens of the state of Ireland actually conserved salmon? Can we be trusted? Logbooks cannot be used as a way of conserving Salmon! That is my opinion! Evaluating the amount of Salmon in a river on the basis of what we are catching is not viable!
Paul asked the following -
" Deputy Paul McAuliffe asked the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications the accuracy of the tagging scheme for wild salmon and sea trout (details supplied) on the River Maine. "
If you want to find the rest of that debate you can find it here - Debate on River Maine Accuracy
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| Paul McAuliffe TD |
The answer that Eamon Ryan gave was straight from the office of the now Head of Business at the IFI. Now when I read this I was delighted because finally we have someone at the IFI admitting to cameras on the river Maine Fish counter. What people don't understand is this! I don't want any of this. It's a hassle to me. Personally I could do without this absolute mind game going in my life. The problem I have is that I just can't sit back and read lies. Now they might be just lying to me but I am not mentally or physically able to just read the fish counter results and not say anything. I am not saying I am right in any of this. I hope I am wrong and these fish that they say are going over the counter are real Salmon. It would be a relief and I would be so happy. Back in 2018 was the straw that broke the camels back. When I see 1400 spring salmon then sorry I am done! I am literally gonna take people's heads off their shoulders. The problem that the IFI have is that most people within the angling community have selfish ties to either the IFI or something to do with them. Most people that say they care about Salmon, don't. It's just to talk about nothing else, they are afraid that they might have to put back a fish or that a river might close. I don't believe any of it to be honest. The whole thing is a scandal. An old drift net man rang me during the week. I had a two hour conversation with him. What he said was the truth. The drift nets almost wiped out the salmon. The salmon in fact are gone and we killed them. All of us have contributed to salmon being critically endangered. The fact that we stand by and watch it happen is a sin also. The famous prayer comes to mind, "In what I have done and what I have failed to do". What we have failed in is this, allowing the government to consecutively destroy salmon stocks in Ireland. The drift net man told me this, for years they would over exhilarate their catch to make sure the following year their quota would get larger. In 2007 or 2006 which ever year was the last year of drift netting their quota was well into 100,000 but they actually only caught 50,000. Our greed killed our native Salmon, nothing else and now our denial of who we are is killing them again. Now we are gonna put the nail in the coffin by making up the conservation limits by claiming catch data can be counted on! Log books are not data and can't be claimed as such. Real verified data is what is needed to protect our Salmon. That is what the scientists recommended for Castlemaine to open as a fishery back in 2010. That is what IFI agreed to. The whole situation needs to change because we are wiping out the last of the Salmon and we blame climate change! We are doing it! I want photographic evidence of the Salmon going over the counter in 2022. I will chain myself to the gate of the IFI office if I don't get it, I promise ye that. I am so grateful that I found this following briefing stating that cameras have been working on the counter since 2009. Now we can see these salmon, then I can hold my hand up and say I am wrong and move on. Netting starts in a few weeks can the IFI please just show us photographic verified evidence of Salmon from 2022 going over the counter?
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| River Maine Fish Counter Parliamentary Question 2021 |
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River Maine Fish Counter Parliamentary Question 2021
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River Maine Fish Counter Parliamentary Question 2021
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River Maine Fish Counter Parliamentary Question 2021
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River Maine Fish Counter Parliamentary Question 2021
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