Fish farm company fined for damming salmonid river

http://www.fisheriesireland.ie/Press-re ... river.html

At a sitting of Clifden District Court on Thursday, 26th of February, Judge Mary Fahy convicted a fish farm company under Section 173 of the Fisheries Act, 1959, for damage caused to the bed of a river in Co. Galway.

Mannin Bay Salmon Company was before the court, arising from an incident which occurred in July 2014. The court heard that Fisheries Officers had found the company had constructed a dam across the Bunowen River, which flows into Killary Harbour, in order to pump freshwater to a fish farm cage located offshore. Significant damage was caused to the bed of the river, which is a spawning and nursery habitat, and the dam was impeding the passage of fish.

The company pleaded guilty to the charge, and the solicitor for the defence, Mr Thomas Mannion, pleaded that the company had experienced an emergency situation whereby an outbreak of Amoebic Gill Disease threatened the stock of fish on the fish farm. Amoebic Gill Disease can be treated by bathing fish in freshwater for a number of hours. The defence acknowledged that the company knew it should not have dammed the river, but did so in order to avoid significant financial losses.

Convicting the company, Judge Fahy commented that protection of fish habitat was very important, but acknowledged that the company had been co-operative and had removed the dam and rectified the situation immediately once Fisheries Officers became aware of it. She fined the company €500, with €500 costs.

Inland Fisheries Ireland (IFI) has a confidential hotline number to enable members of the general public to report incidents - 1890 34 74 24 or 1890 FISH 24. This phone line is designed to encourage the reporting of incidents of illegal fishing, water pollution and invasive species.

For more information, visit www.fisheriesireland.ie.

A paltry fine and the company directors should have been prosecuted too, but it's recognition that what they did was illegal. This fish farm has regularly breached the maximum permitted lice levels over many years without proper sanctions. They pleaded in court that it was an emergency situation and they would have lost €1m in stock if they hadn't dammed the river, like that's a reason to break the law. Same story in Ardmore at the same time last year when Marine Harvest took millions of litres of water from a public water supply through a pipeline that was illegal. These companies don't care about the laws that apply to the rest of us...

what about the river on clare island and the one at corrane - take the water first - answer questions (if any) later

how long does a river take to recover after removing these ad hoc damns?

meanwhile the government wants the citizen to pay for our water

scandalous fine!

Can't say that I am overcome by surprise,

I saw the film 'River Runner' last evening in a local cinema which dealt with the Lee Scheme which allowed the ESB destroy one the best salmon rivers in Ireland (and Europe) and cut down the Gearra forest which was considered to be a World Heritage Site at the time because it was one of only two remaining ancient woodlands which dated back to when the ice sheet receded from the European landmass.
I am old enough - and have been fishing long enough - to remember the scheme being debated and opposition arguments which have since been vindicated that were steadfastly ignored in favour of bogus economic arguments because the ESB were given powers which could override commonsense. They installed a fish pass which they were told would never work - and never did - and it has never been replaced in over half a century by one that does work despite overall financial resources of the ESB and the miniscule expenditure involved.

When it comes to bogus economic arguments the Lee Scheme takes the biscuit. For the past 10 months or so I can look out of my kitchen window at a few wind turbines in the Lee estuary which are ecologically mildly unsightly but generate the equivalent power of the scheme which destroyed the livelihhood and way of life of thousands of people.

Therefore I stick to my original position on this forum that fisheries in Ireland have been largely driven 'politically' by idiots.

some people are just completely ignorant to wildlife and of it's fragility. they don't care about natural heritage and of the true value it carries, they just don't give a sh1t.
it's an on-going battle with these people. sheer ignorance

Can't say that I am overcome by surprise,

I saw the film 'River Runner' last evening in a local cinema which dealt with the Lee Scheme which allowed the ESB destroy one the best salmon rivers in Ireland (and Europe) and cut down the Gearra forest which was considered to be a World Heritage Site at the time because it was one of only two remaining ancient woodlands which dated back to when the ice sheet receded from the European landmass.
I am old enough - and have been fishing long enough - to remember the scheme being debated and opposition arguments which have since been vindicated that were steadfastly ignored in favour of bogus economic arguments because the ESB were given powers which could override commonsense. They installed a fish pass which they were told would never work - and never did - and it has never been replaced in over half a century by one that does work despite overall financial resources of the ESB and the miniscule expenditure involved.

When it comes to bogus economic arguments the Lee Scheme takes the biscuit. For the past 10 months or so I can look out of my kitchen window at a few wind turbines in the Lee estuary which are ecologically mildly unsightly but generate the equivalent power of the scheme which destroyed the livelihhood and way of life of thousands of people.

Therefore I stick to my original position on this forum that fisheries in Ireland have been largely driven 'politically' by idiots.

every time i think of dams i can only reflect on that monstrosity at the mouth of the Erne waterway system, at Ballyshannon. imagine, world famous for it's salmon fishing and now the salmon are non-existant! unbelievable. yes, there was a 'demand' for electricity at the time but what a complete and utter ecological disaster. and not the only one of course..
plenty of info here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shannon_hy ... ric_scheme

the fish farm should have been taken off those guys for doing that

Sure we have to keep trying
https://secure.avaaz.org/en/petition/IR ... Y/?wiWKHib

If you get a chance have a look at a stunningly informative documentary called 'Damnation'. It deals with the obsession in the US in the early 20th century of creating power by hydro electric generation and the thousands of rivers that were dammed and the subsequent effect to migratory fish like samon and steelhead- the obliteration of cutural traditions and traditional rights in the interest of generating , what is now considered tiny amounts of power. Some of them are finally being blown up and the river systems returned to their natural state

All of our hydro schemes ( along with the short term thinking eejits that initiated them) make no economic sense. Locally the Lee Valley was flooded in an act Vandalism which beggars belief. Apart from the stunningly beautiful geography of the place itself being obliterated -a major Europen Salmon river was reduced in catches to from 14,000 to 161 overnight - and all the economic misery that that entailed. And the equivalent power generation can now be achieved by 3 or 4 wind turbines which raises the question of how big a retard do you have to be when interfering with the environment not to be able to see more than a week or two ahead.