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.