CITY TRIBUNE
Give bounty to pike hunters to save native Corrib trout
Bradley Bytes – a sort of political column with Dara Bradley
If Saint Patrick were alive today, it’s not snakes we’d ask him to banish. No, we’d beg him to rid Lough Corrib of invasive pike.
In the absence of our Patron Saint’s powers to drive unwelcome carnivorous creatures from these shores, maybe it’s time the Government acted as modern-day saints and began to properly manage non-native pike on waters that are Special Areas of Conservation in Galway.
The issue is quite complicated. But it can be simplified, too. And it boils down to this: unless predatory pike are controlled on Lough Corrib, the native trout and salmon which have been there since the Ice Age, will go the way of Arctic Char, a species that is now extinct on the Corrib.
Firstly, think of the impact it would have on tourism. Galway City’s Salmon Weir is synonymous with fly-fishing but without its salmon and trout, that iconic image of anglers wading through waters would vanish and take with it the city’s reputation. Their absence would also hit villages throughout County Galway, like Headford and Oughterard that depend on angling tourism.
It’s not just tourism; doing nothing also amounts to ecological vandalism. Remember, Lough Corrib SAC is one of only 11 systems in the World that is salmonid. But it’s under threat, and that’s why now is the time to consider introducing a bounty on Lough Corrib and paying fishermen for each pike they catch.
They do this in parts of Canada, where the authorities take the threat of pike rather more seriously than their Irish counterparts do.
Trout anglers here have long feared the impact of pike. They believe the species was nefariously introduced into the Corrib. Possibly, that’s still happening. The aim, they suspect, was to turn the Corrib into a mixed fishery.
Mixed fisheries don’t have to achieve water quality standards equal to salmonid waters. But a mixed fishery would also give the authorities a marketable product – come to Galway to fish for pike, perch, trout and salmon.
The reality, though, is that pike are predatory and eat everything. They particularly like trout, which they views as fillet steak. And they need to eat more and more trout to survive and thrive.
That’s great news for pike anglers, who pose for photos at big fishing competitions with their massive catches. It’s horrible news for trout, which local anglers genuinely fear could be wiped out.
A 1995 survey by Dr Martin O’Grady, studied the contents of the stomachs of 1,159 pike. It found that the stomach contents weighed 5.2 tons, 4.6 tons of which were trout. He ascertained that pike had gobbled up 225,000 trout to sustain their weight. How many trout does it take nowadays to sustain the adult population of pike?
The law on pike on the Corrib has proven to be an ass. For reasons only known to themselves, officials in the Department of Environment have presided over Bylaws 809 and 806 that afford greater protection to pike on the Corrib than to trout or salmon. It’d be like the National Parks and Wildlife Service protecting rhododendrons and Japanese knotweed.
The Bylaws need to be repealed and Government needs to consider introducing bounties to reverse the balance in favour of trout.
(Photo A 9lb pike caught by rod and line on the Corrib last year with a healthy wild native brown trout in its stomach).
This is a shortened preview version of Bradley Bytes. See this week’s Galway City Tribune for more. You can buy a digital edition HERE.
From the Galway City Tribune – An impassioned plea for a ‘masterplan’ that would guide Galway City into the future has been made in the Dáil. Galway West TD Catherine Connolly stated this week that there needed to be an all-inclusive approach with “vision and leadership” in order to build a sustainable city.
Deputy Connolly spoke at length at the crisis surrounding traffic and housing in Galway city and said that not all of the blame could be laid at the door of the local authority.
She said that her preference would be the provision of light rail as the main form of public transport, but that this would have to be driven by the government.
“I sat on the local council for 17 years and despaired at all of the solutions going down one road, metaphorically and literally. In 2005 we put Park & Ride into the development plan, but that has not been rolled out. A 2016 transport strategy was outdated at the time and still has not been updated.
“Due to the housing crisis in the city, a task force was set up in 2019. Not a single report or analysis has been published on the cause of the crisis,” added Deputy Connolly.
She then referred to a report from the Land Development Agency (LDA) that identified lands suitable for the provision of housing. But she said that two-thirds of these had significant problems and a large portion was in Merlin Park University Hospital which, she said, would never have housing built on it.
In response, Minister Simon Harris spoke of the continuing job investment in the city and also in higher education, which is his portfolio.
But turning his attention to traffic congestion, he accepted that there were “real issues” when it came to transport, mobility and accessibility around Galway.
“We share the view that we need a Park & Ride facility and I understand there are also Bus Connects plans.
“I also suggest that the City Council reflect on her comments. I am proud to be in a Government that is providing unparalleled levels of investment to local authorities and unparalleled opportunities for local authorities to draw down,” he said.
Then Minister Harris referred to the controversial Galway City Outer Ring Road which he said was “struck down by An Bord Pleanála”, despite a lot of energy having been put into that project.
However, Deputy Connolly picked up on this and pointed out that An Bord Pleanála did not say ‘No’ to the ring road.
“The High Court said ‘No’ to the ring road because An Bord Pleanála acknowledged it failed utterly to consider climate change and our climate change obligations.
“That tells us something about An Bord Pleanála and the management that submitted such a plan.”
In the end, Minister Harris agreed that there needed to be a masterplan for Galway City.
“I suggest it is for the local authority to come up with a vision and then work with the Government to try to fund and implement that.”
The new Salmon Weir pedestrian and cycle bridge will be officially opened to the public next Friday, May 26.
Work on the €10 million bridge got underway in April 2022, before the main structure was hoisted into place in early December.
A lunchtime tape-cutting ceremony will take place on Friday, as the first pedestrians and cyclists traverse the as-yet-unnamed bridge.
The Chief Executive of Galway City Council, Brendan McGrath, previously said the bridge, once opened, would remove existing conflicts between pedestrians, cyclists and traffic “as well as facilitating the Cross-City Link public transport corridor over the existing 200-year-old bridge”.
The naming of the new bridge has been under discussion by the Council’s Civic Commemorations Committee since late last year.
One name that has been in the mix for some time is that of the first woman in Europe to graduate with an engineering degree – Alice Perry.
Ms Perry, who was from Wellpark, graduated from Queen’s College Galway (now University of Galway) in 1906. The university’s engineering building is named in her honour.
The bridge was built by Jons Civil Engineering firm in County Meath and was assembled off-site before being transported to Galway. Funding for the project was provided in full by the National Transport Authority and the European Regional Development Fund.
(Photo: Sheila Gallagher captured the city’s new pedestrian footbridge being raised on the south side of the Salmon Weir Bridge in December. It will officially open next Friday, May 26).
From the Galway City Tribune – Minister of State for Local Government and Planning, Kieran O’Donnell was labelled a “disgrace” for overturning councillors’ decisions to rezone land in the new City Development Plan.
Minister O’Donnell (pictured) confirmed in a letter to Council Chief Executive Brendan McGrath last week that he was reversing 25 material alternations made by councillors to the CDP 2023-29. He made the decision on the advice of Office of Planning Regulator (OPR).
Minister O’Donnell directed that 14 land parcels that were subject to land-use zoning changes by councillors as part of the Material Alterations to the Draft CDP should be reversed.
He directed that a further 11 land parcels in the city should become “unzoned”.
The Minister found that the CDP had not been made in a manner consistent with recommendations of the OPR, which required specific changes to the plan to ensure consistency with the national planning laws and guidelines.
At last week’s Council meeting Cllr Eddie Hoare (FG) asked for clarity on the process by which councillors could rezone the lands that had been changed by the Minister’s direction.
Cllr Declan McDonnell said, “What he [Minister O’Donnell] has done is an absolute disgrace”.
And he asked: “Do we have to have another development plan meeting to deal with it?”
Both Cllrs Hoare and McDonnell wondered what would become of the lands that were rezoned or unzoned by the ministerial direction.
Mr McGrath said the Council had put forward an argument in favour of retaining the material alterations in the plan, but ultimately the Minister sided with OPR.
He said if councillors want to make alterations to the new plan, they could go through the process of making a material alteration but this was lengthy.
The Save Roscam Peninsula campaign welcomed the Minister’s decision.
In a statement to the Galway City Tribune, it said the direction would mean the Roscam village area on the Roscam Peninsula will be unzoned and a number of land parcels would revert back to agriculture/high amenity.
A spokesperson for the campaign said: “the material alterations made by city councillors following lobbying by developers continued the long-standing practice of councillors facilitating a developer-led plan rather than an evidence- and policy-based plan that meets the needs of the city.
“The Minister’s direction is an important step in restoring confidence in the planning system. It is clear from the City Council’s own evidence on future housing projections that there was no requirement to zone these lands for residential purposes in order to meet the needs of the targeted population increase up to 2029,” the spokesperson added.
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