Salmon poaching is understood to have “sky-rocketed” since the beginning of the coronavirus crisis, according to Francis O’Donnell, regional director of Inland Fisheries Ireland.
Mr O’Donnell told The Irish Times that 1.5km of illegal drift net was seized off Inishbofin in just one case last Wednesday, even though drift net fishing for salmon had been outlawed in 2007.
Salmon may well become extinct within our lifetime. International conferences where people chat about climate change over coffee will most definitely not save the mythical Irish fish. Climate change is an international diagnosis of local problems caused by the same International policies. It is like putting the fox in charge of saving the chickens. European Union fishing policies have devastated salmon and other fish stocks in Irish waters. Local Irish poachers, if allowed to continue, will seal the fate of the salmon, as they net the fish returning to spawn.
Meanwhile, Irish national media outlets and NGOs continue to ignore the real environmental problems on the ground ensuring the actual perpetrators are never dealt with. It is only by reading local newspapers that you can find out what is actually causing the environmental destruction. The solution is too much for most "environmentalists" to comprehend, it requires protection of salmon at a military scale, calling in the Navy if needs be. Fighting climate change is all about wagging the finger at all you bad people driving cars and eating meat, guilt-tripping you into making you pay more taxes - easy to do from the comfort of your news office. Saving the salmon will require military operations along our coast. And so in modern liberal Ireland, the easy solution will always be taken, and that means more finger pointing by the luvvies and the end of the salmon.