LEADING WILD salmon conservationist and Connemara fishery manager Peter Mantle is leaving his post later this month to develop an angling business in the Bahamas.
Mr Mantle, who has been managing director of Delphi Fishery Ltd in Leenane, Co Galway, for the past 25 years, has hosted Prince Charles of Britain among his many guests at the lodge formerly owned by the Marquis of Sligo.
A vocal opponent of fish farms and of drift netting for salmon, he was a leading member of the Sea Trout Action Group (Stag) which was formed over the issue of sea lice two decades ago.
Mr Mantle said he would remain a significant shareholder in the Delphi company and would continue to offer it advice. He said he would also continue to live for much of the year at his home in Connemara, but intended to develop his business in flyfishing for bonefish in the Bahamas.
“Making your living based on the vagaries of nature and migratory fish is a bit bizarre, but it has worked very well for us here,” Mr Mantle said.
He said he was delighted the Government had moved to ban drift netting for salmon in 2007, but also believed that larger factors were affecting the health of wild salmon at sea.
“It hasn’t been all the fishermen’s fault, and they deserved to be compensated,” he said.
“There was a significant increase in both the numbers and size of wild salmon here in the year after the ban, but we were disappointed by the quantum increase,” he said. “There is no doubt that if drift netting had continued, Delphi would no longer be in business, but there is something dramatic happening out there on feeding grounds, perhaps linked to climate change or industrial fishing or both.”
Mr Mantle said he believed the issue of sea lice and sea trout still had not been resolved, and he remained convinced of the link with aquaculture. “The regulatory authorities have a lot to answer for,” he said. “There is monitoring of farms, but no farm has ever been penalised for failing to meet the regulations.”
One of the highlights of the past 25 years had been the development of a salmon hatchery at the lodge, he said. The lodge, which was derelict when he acquired it in 1986, has won many awards.
