Why won’t DAERA allow hatcheries?

Salmon collapse in Lough Neagh

Salmon numbers entering the Lough Neagh system have collapsed from 14,700 to just 4,300 this year, yet a Northern Ireland angling club has been blocked from reopening a hatchery that could help reverse the decline.

The Kells, Connor and Glenwherry Angling Club secured support from across political parties and a positive visit from agriculture minister Andrew Muir to their facility. Despite this, government agency DAERA Inland Fisheries refused the club permission to collect dollaghan – migratory brown trout – and salmon broodstock for conservation purposes.

Club chairman Phil Mailey said those working to protect rivers for future generations are “at their wit’s end”. The refusal means local schoolchildren will also miss out on an educational project where they would have hatched trout in classrooms and released native fry into the Connor Burn.

Alleged failures by DAERA

Mr Mailey accused DAERA of multiple failures: not establishing stock levels in Lough Neagh despite tonnes of fish being removed commercially without quotas, failing to remove migration barriers, not prosecuting those responsible for major fish kills, and allowing water abstraction that affects migration.

“What are DAERA actually doing to protect our fish stocks?” he asked, pointing out that countries including Iceland, Norway and Canada use hatcheries for restoration while Northern Ireland refuses to, “using NASCO guidance as a screen for inaction”.