Madam, - I have been studying the various recent newspaper reports about the proposed reintroduction of the white-tailed sea eagle into Killarney National Park. As a native Kerryman, it is most disappointing to see that when the people of Kerry are being given this wonderful opportunity some people try to find unmeritorious reasons to block it.
This project will bring a great tourist boost to the whole Kerry and Cork region and the benefits will run into millions each year.
With respect to the "livestock threat" in Norway, where there are plenty of sheep and also plenty of eagles (nearly 3,200 pairs of white-tailed sea eagles), there has never been a recorded case of a lamb kill by a white-tailed sea eagle.
The Scottish experience is that the percentage of lamb losses from sea eagle kills is minute compared with the losses to weather, bad husbandry, disease, foxes, grey crows and stray dogs. In fact, in many instances, both golden eagles and white-tailed eagles in Scotland befriend the farmer and fisherman alike as both species are known to take crows, gulls, mink and young foxes.
From a fishing perspective, the eagles feed on cormorants, as well as cleaning up coastal regions by consuming dead fish or seals. Indeed for the past six years, tourism in Donegal has benefited from the return of the golden eagles, which has only enhanced the county's many visitor attractions without any livestock problems whatsoever.
I hope for all concerned that narrow vested interests do not deprive the people of Kerry and the people of Ireland of a unique opportunity to bring back this most exciting creature so that Kerry can have one of its most magnificent birds of prey rightly back after an absence of 100 years. Up the Kingdom! - Yours, etc,
STEPHEN FLEMING,
The Mall,
Lucan,
Co Dublin.