Battle underway to save Connemara trout from invasive species

New bylaws proposed by Inland Fisheries Ireland (IFI) have the potential to destroy trout fishing in Connemara, which is renowned worldwide.

It is understood some 1,200 fishermen in North Connemara have made submissions to IFI opposing its plans to amend bylaw 806, which could irrevocably damage trout fishing in County Galway.

If passed, local anglers fear that invasive species, tench and bream, could be introduced to salmonid waterways, which would eradicate the native trout.

“Trout do best when they’re the only species. They thrive when they have more room and when they have more food. Once you start putting in coarse fish, like pike or tench or bream, the trout over time will become marginalised. And once they’re gone, you can’t bring it back.

“We have some of the best brown trout fisheries in the world but if these amended byelaws go through then they’ll be gone in 10 or 15 years,” warned Michael Donnellan of Oughterard Anglers and Boatmen Association.

Lakes such as Lough Inagh and Ballynahinch, and smaller lakes around Roundstone and Oughterard are most at risk from these new bylaws, he said.

This is not a ‘boy who cried wolf’ warning either – Mr Donnellan pointed to a lake in Moycullen for proof that this is a real danger.

“Ross Lake on the right-hand side as you drive into Moycullen has no trout in it any longer. That’s official as of 2016 when IFI did a survey. The trout are gone. That’s what happens,” he said.

Under the bye-laws it would still be illegal for tench or bream to be introduced into Galway’s trout lakes. But, if the bye-laws passed, and if coarse fish were illegally introduced into the waterways, perversely it would not be legal to remove them, as they have protections under bylaw 806.

“The problem is that coarse fishermen have no respect for trout fishing. They don’t care about trout fishing. They couldn’t care less if all lakes were mixed. But we have the best trout fishing in the world and there are already a lot of coarse fishing lakes in England and mainland Europe. We need to protect trout fishing in Galway,” said Mr Donnellan.

He added that trout fisheries need protection from ‘bucket biologists’ who deliberately and illegally introduce invasive coarse fish species into recognised salmonid fisheries.

Mr Donnellan explained that asking trout fishermen to accept the introduction of coarse fish into the salmonid lakes would be like giving a golfer a tennis racket and tennis ball and asking them to go play a round of golf with them.