Sir, – As an avid angler and Hibernophile, I have been visiting west Cork for 32 years. During this time, the general fish stocks have steadily declined but a striking success story has been the preservation of the bass population due to the Government’s enlightened policy regarding its protection from commercial exploitation.
Courtmacsherry Bay is a noted bass habitat, not to mention a beautiful piece of coastline.
Sadly it is now blighted by vast rafts of “sea lettuce” weed which swills up and down the estuary with the tides, eventually blanketing the beaches. The weed then rots, producing a porridge of stinking slime which can reach knee-deep in places.
This problem has been apparent for the last few years but is now the worst I have ever seen.There are no doubt many factors involved with the excessive weed growth, and although it may be accelerated by fine weather I suspect the root cause is pollution. Inadequate sewage provision for the explosion in housing along the coast and agricultural slurry or fertiliser run-off are likely culprits.
The current situation is a disaster for the local ecosystem, residents and tourism. This problem is not confined to Courtmacsherry. I witnessed multiple trailer-loads of the weed being removed from beaches at nearby Inchydoney.
The appropriate State agencies need to take urgent action to investigate the causes of the problems and attempt to find solutions before tourism in west Cork follows the way of the “Celtic Tiger”. – Yours, etc,
GUY PITCHER, New Street, Cawston, Norfolk, England.