“Jaws” it ain’t – the Angelshark has more in common with the skate and ray but is now an endangered species. The squat flat shark, appropriately named Squatina squatina, once lived in abundance on sandy and muddy seabed areas on the Irish coastline but is now confined to Tralee Bay, Co Kerry. The critically endangered species is the focus of a research appeal.  Fiddle-fish, Banjofish and Devilfish are all names given to a species of shark native to Ireland which is now as endangered as the Giant panda or Bengal tiger. The Angelshark once lived in abundance on sandy and muddy seabed area ..read more

On March 21, 2023, Hayden Lake in northern Idaho produced a new state record northern pike (Esox lucius). This monster pike weighed 40.76 pounds, and measured 49 inches long with a 26.5-inch girth! Hayden Lake is located in Kootenai County. The lake is five miles northeast of Coeur d’Alene and about 16 miles from the Idaho/Washington border. This picturesque lake is surrounded on three sides by mountains that rise to 6,000 feet. These peaks are part of the Bitterroot Mountain Range. Much of the land is part of the 726,362-acre Coeur d’Alene National Forest. ? Beautiful Hayden Lake is sur ..read more

The UK fishing industry is to benefit from an initial £2 million investment to trial new, greener engines and help create a safer, more sustainable fishing fleet as the latest round of the £100m UK Seafood Fund opens today (27 January 2022). OIder vessel engines are some of the industry’s biggest polluters and, according to a report by MARFISH, over half of the boats across the UK fishing fleet are now more than 30 years old, meaning that the annual energy use of the fleet is equivalent to that of 110,000 homes. From today, vessels in the small-scale coastal fleet can bid for up to ..read more

A fisherman has described landing a rare blue lobster in Belfast Lough as the catch of a lifetime. Some marine biologists have estimated the odds of catching a blue lobster at around two million to one. Stuart Brown, 28, from Bangor, Co Down, said he could not believe his eyes when he pulled one of his lobster pots up onto the deck of his boat the Huntress last Friday. "We were sitting in about 50 to 60 feet of water and the fourth pot came up," he recalled. "I sort of saw it, but I think I thought, 'it's just a lobster'. You could hear the tail going. "I slid the pot down to the crew man who ..read more

Ireland’s rivers teemed with salmon 30 years ago, but today numbers have declined by about 70 per cent. “Unless we can implement our conservation programme in the major catchment areas, we could be looking at a situation where we will have little or no salmon left in the wild in Ireland. It would be a terrible loss to the Irish people,” said Inland Fisheries Ireland’s (IFI) natural habitat development fisheries manager, Declan Cooke. Speaking on RTÉ's Ear to the Ground TV programme, he said water pollution was a major problem. Fencing off fields to debar cattle access to rivers would be a gre ..read more

The Irish Federation of Sea Anglers are holding two shore angling sessions for young (under 16 and under 21) anglers who wish to progress in their shore angling, and possibly represent Ireland on the international stage. This is part of the IFSA CAST programme, which aims to take novice anglers to accomplished sea anglers, and to reach the highest level they can if they choose competition fishing. These are also qualifying competitions for the Irish teams (u16 and u21) which will travel to the World Championships in Holland later this year. There are two sessions, one in Leinster on the 25th ..read more

The Government is to be asked to give Ireland’s inshore fishers more than €12m to help them deal with the disruption to their markets caused by the war in Ukraine and the pandemic. The market in shrimp, for example, has collapsed, with one group of around 600 smaller inshore fishers losing an estimated total of €5m in the build-up to last Christmas. Their representatives have seen more than €100m in packages to help the much larger, offshore sector boat owners deal with the negative impacts of Brexit, which is mainly the cut in quota and resulting 40% fall in income. But they say that despi ..read more

A search is underway for three fishermen after an 18-metre trawler was involved in a collision with a 126-metre freight ship off the coast of west Jersey at approximately 5.30am, 08/12. Jersey-registered l’Ecume II was involved in a collision with the 11166 tonnes Commodore Goodwill in the early morning hours. It has been reported locally that debris from the fishing boat is in the sea where the vessel is believed to have sunk. A number of local and French fishing boats have joined in the search mission. Rescue boats, including the RNLI’s St Helier all-weather and inshore lifeboats, who rece ..read more

The Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, Eamon Ryan TD, has approved legislation that will govern the wild salmon and sea trout fisheries in 2023. These came into effect on Sunday, 1st January 2023. Minister Ryan said: “81 rivers will be available for salmon and sea trout fishing in 2023. This facilitates careful management of this important natural resource, for which conservation and sustainability are paramount. 48 of the rivers will be fully open, with a further 33 open to ‘catch and release’ angling. The general improvements in stocks from 2022 have been maintained f ..read more

There is growing opposition in Conamara to an application by the Norwegian multinational Mowi to build a large salmon farm off the Galway coast. Interest groups say the move would be detrimental to wild fish stocks which they say are already in dramatic decline. There are calls now on the Government to tighten regulation of the industry. Within the special area of conservation, salmon farming is already in operation at Ballinakill Bay in the Renvyle area. There is concern locally around Mowi's application, which would see the building of a 22-cage farm off Cleggan Head - producing around 3,5 ..read more