Sir, - While we would agree with your correspondent Mr McCafferty (June 17th) that Ireland does indeed possess lakes rivers and bays of outstanding value, his letter illustrates a complete lack of understanding of the facts regarding Irish fish farming.
Firstly, as so many people in the scientific, environmental band political fields are now accepting, it has never been proven that there is any link between fish farming and sea trout stock declines. Your correspondent makes the cardinal error of using Lough Currane as an example of an area which had "suffered" because of fish farming. On the contrary, much to the embarrassment of many who thought they had conveniently scapegoated aquaculture, when the facts came to light the lake revealed itself to have not suffered any decline in stocks over the years in question. By then many people had been taken in by spurious attempts to sacrifice a fine fishery in the interests of scapegoating an entire industry. The allegations and hype which surrounded Currane have since been shown to be grossly inaccurate and unfair. As we are now aware, this thriving fishery has successfully co existed with aquaculture since the introduction of fish farming enterprises in the area.
Recent debates have shown that when faced with a choice between having to learn the facts about fish farming, or accepting pub talk myths as gospel, most people lazily accept misinformation over education. Over the coming months our industry would like to change that situation by giving everyone interested in the production of Irish quality salmon the opportunity to learn about our efficient production methods, our dependence on a clean environment and our good husbandry and high quality standards.
In relation to your correspondent's misplaced theories on farmed fish diets, we would like to extend an invitation to him to contact us at 01-4508755. We will arrange a visit for him to one of our top class feed manufacturers, Trouw Ireland in Westport, Co Mayo. Following this we have no doubt that your correspondent will comfortably enjoy eating quality Irish farmed salmon or trout in the knowledge that our fish feed contains nothing but the best natural (and Irish sourced) ingredients. Yours, etc
Chairman,
Irish Salmon Growers
Association Ltd,
Irish Farm Centre,
Bluebell,
Dublin 12.