Gun fired as officers seize boat

GARDAÍ are investigating an incident in which a firearm was discharged after fisheries protection officers went to seize a boat, an illegal net and salmon on the River Suir.

Fisheries Protection Officers with Inland Fisheries Ireland seized nine wild salmon on the upper tidal Suir during the night of Tuesday, July 28, near Carrick-on-Suir, Co. Tipperary, on a routine fisheries patrol. A firearm was discharged by the alleged offenders while IFI officers were responding to the matter. Nobody was injured. Members of An Garda Síochána attended the scene and the incident is being investigated.

David McInerney, IFI director, said: ‘The salmon caught by this illegal net were on the final leg of an arduous journey to reach their native spawning rivers. The fish were fresh in from the sea, having survived a journey from either the coastal waters off west Greenland or the Faroe Islands, before being cruelly killed by an illegal net, a few miles from their final destination.

‘Nobody should purchase wild salmon that does not carry either a green or white gill tag through the mouth and gill clearly displaying the name Inland Fisheries Ireland. I would like to highlight the dedication and courage demonstrated by the officers in tackling illegal fishing in the face of significant personal danger.’

To report incidents of water pollution, illegal fishing and fish kills to IFI, call its confidential hotline: 1890 34 74 24.