Mayo anglers see EU money as a threat to the Moy catchment fishery

They talk about it in Munich, in London, in Zurich. One visitor caught 60 fish on one trip to Alaska, but swears nothing can quite match Mayo's peaceful Moy. Ironically, EU money has been blamed for threatening the future of one of Europe's finest wild salmon fisheries. "Landlordism revisited" is how some local anglers sum it up.

It is an emotive term, and yet inland fisheries management is an issue which always evokes passion. Remember the great "rod war" of 1987 to 1990? In Swinford, Co Mayo, a reasonable group of citizens regret the day they heard about the EU's Tourism Angling Measure (TAM).

Billed as the largest single investment in the development of Irish angling, the TAM comprises £17.5 million under the current EU structural round to 1999. Funds have been disbursed to public and private owners of this State's 145,000 hectares of lake and 14,000 km of rivers. One of the many beneficiaries has been the State-controlled Moy.

Running 100 km from Sligo's Ox Mountains to the sea at Ballina, the Moy's catchment includes 25 tributaries and streams and over 30 lakes, including Lough Conn and Cullin. It has survived some of the worst excesses of development; in the mid-1960s the main river channel and several tributaries were drained to alleviate flooding, but there was no thought or knowledge at the time of the environmental impact.

Although there are no records, members of the East Mayo Anglers' Association (EMAA) believe brown trout stocks fell significantly as a result, as did the salmon catch. The association is nearly as old as the State. The anglers have witnessed much, including the growth of agricultural, industrial and urban pollution from the mid-1960s on. When the regional boards were established under the 1980s Fisheries Act, they were given representation. Due to resource constraints the local commitment and input was far greater than they may have been given credit for.

The significance of that voice was recognised in two government initiatives aimed at taking responsibility for wild salmon, the 1987 Salmon Review Group and the 1996 Salmon Task Force report, which both put emphasis on local co-operation. The task force in particular was praised for its attempt to reconcile deeprooted differences, and one of its recommendations, the establishment of a salmon management commission, has been accepted recently by the Minister for the Marine and Natural Resources, Dr Woods.

The East Mayo Anglers think this local contribution is no longer being acknowledged.

The association had leased three river stretches on the Moy, spanning about 8.5 miles, for its 230 members. When the leases expired last year, the Central Fisheries Board (CFB) offered renewal for 12 months only, following open competitive tendering.

In 1996 the association had commissioned a management study, because of the increased number of tourist anglers on the river. Copies of the final report, compiled by Enviro 21 consultancy in Boyle, Co Roscommon, were submitted to the CFB. Many of its policy objectives were in line with those of the North Western Regional Fisheries Board in its Moy plan.

Unfortunately, the association feels its initiative has been rendered useless by the CBF's decision to give it a short guarantee. Other changes in fishery management, effected by the north-western and central fisheries boards, are also resented by members.

The CFB's strategy includes dividing the fishing into beats; limiting the number of anglers on each beat; marketing the fishery abroad; pre-booking and taking deposits in advance; removing the pre9 a.m. ban on visitor fishing; employing a manager; recording daily catches; and imposing a daily bag limit, especially for spring fish.

The CFB has advised the local association to liaise closely with the north-western board. Fishing rights on one of the association's three stretches, at Ballintemple, have been offered to East Mayo members at no extra charge, on condition that they act as agent for the north-western board in selling permits on this stretch to visiting anglers.

The association is outraged at what it perceives to be an attempt by the central board to make the most out of the tourist opportunities and, through a prebooking system, to destroy longstanding relationships it enjoys with European visitors.

The members believe the popularity of the Moy fishery at Ballina's Ridge Pool, where the system of boxes or traps is already attracting controversy, has forced the board to push anglers further upriver.

"We have always welcomed visitors here, and many bed-and-breakfasts depend on them," says Mr Seamus Boland, the EMAA secretary. "We have protected the river ourselves, employing a waterkeeper and bailiffs, because the north-western board hasn't had the money. We have a good relationship with local farmers, and we never took pre-bookings because we want to guarantee a good fishery."

Seamus and his fellow committee members, including president Phil Beirne, Michael Howley, Frank Conboy, Padraig Frain, Jim Kavanagh, Pete McNulty and waterkeeper Martin Curry, now say they want to "go on the offensive". They trace the deterioration in relationships to the EU funds, and the Tourism Angling Measure.

"The central board is destroying the quality of angling on this river," says Mr Boland. "We are not happy with the development work they have carried out to date, nor their style of management. Angling is now business, it is no longer a sport."

Mr John O'Connor, chief executive of the CFB, and Mr Vincent Roche, manager of the North Western Regional Fisheries Board, defend the policy and emphasise that they are committed to local management. They are obliged to tender openly, they say, but the short-term renewal of the association's lease is due to development works which have been carried out on the Moy, at a cost of £2 million over five years, they say.

"This year is an exception," Mr O'Connor says. "When these leases come up again at Christmas, the term will probably be extended to five years again." As for the emphasis on tourism, Mr O'Connor points out that this is in line with Government policy. It is a policy that was very evident at two meetings of the Dail Committee of Public Accounts this year, after last year's criticisms by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG). Freshwater fisheries were badly managed, the CAG's report found.

Citing various instances of poor planning, it highlighted what it saw as a failure to promote activities which could reap considerable revenue, angling tourism being one.