Councillors give their support to Laune anglers’ frantic calls for cull to avert total salmon collapse

SOUTH and west Kerry Municipal District councillors voiced their support for the Laune Anglers’ Association call to cull seals.

There were no dissenting voices among the elected representatives on the issue as they listened to Laune Anglers’ Association chairman and secretary, Billy Cotter and Billy Downes, grim warning on the state of the fishery’s health.

Municipal District Chairperson Fianna Fáil Cllr John Francis Flynn, who facilitated Friday’s angling deputation said: “We’re trying to promote tourism and this is a massive problem. The amount of people who contacted me to say they are catching nothing is unreal. I would call today for a cull on the seals... I have seen 30 or 40 seals sitting up on the bank near Ballykissane Pier.” He said the angling tourism business was vital for restaurants, B&Bs, pubs, etc.

Fianna Fáil councillor Norma Moriarty urged caution in the use of language surrounding the cull, prefering the phrase ‘managing seal numbers’. Fianna Fáil’s Mike Cahill also supported the call, going so far as to call for the reintroduction of a bounty ‘for shooting seals’. Fine Gael’s Patrick Connor Scarteen and Seamus Cosaí MacGearailt warned colleagues of the likely backlash from people utterly opposed to what would be seen as a cruel attack on animals. Cllr Connor Scarteen said he heard of one person seeking a cull on politicians in response to a proposal to cull seals. In the end councillors agreed to comunicate the urgency of the situation to the relevant Minister in the hope of getting the green light for a cull subject to licence and to tease out the possibility of a buy-out of draft-netters in the bay.