Foyle system salmon decline continues despite drift net ban

The number of salmon in the River Foyle system continues to shrink.
That’s despite the fact that drift net fishing has been banned on the system for the third year running.
Now, the drift net fishermen say it’s clear they were not the problem, and they want an investigation into why stocks are still dwindling.
The Loughs Agency confirmed that last year there were fewer than two thousand salmon in the River Finn which is a key angling river.
That figure is down from nearly six thousand in 2006.
The net fishermen on the river and Lough Foyle feel they are being unfairly blamed.
Drift-net fisherman on Lough Foyle, have been preventd from catching salmon since June 2010, and one of them told the BBC today that the ban won’t help stocks to recover.
He claimed it’s now realised that there are other factors that are causing the decline in the salmon,and someone now needs to ask why are stocks still declining after so much public money has been spent?