Want to Subscribe?
Sign In or Sign Up now!

Galway Hurlers to face Cork on Saturday in Thurlus.

Runs of salmon now entering all Irish Rivers as rainfall increases and temperatures fall. Angling prospects improve dramatically with grilse and well conditioned sea trout appearing on each tide. We are witnessing a fundamental shift in Atlantic salmon run times as Grilse (1 sea winter salmon) appear late (as bad as 2007 season) so worries about feeding and marine survival increase. Thankfully good results from SALSEA with 464 post-smolt intercepted (some tagged) so possible answers to emerge by 2011! Excellent runs of big Spring salmon (2 sea winter salmon) in Ireland.

Rod Stewart sets the hearts of Munster racing at Thomond Park with a perfect rendition of ageless classics, chief among them Sailing - a song dedicated here to Ericsson 4 on winning the World Volvo Ocean Race so check out clip!

Ericsson 4 win Volvo Ocean Race, view start of Leg 8 from Galway Bay to Marstrand, Sweden - salmon, sail, sun, sand, sea and samba (well ok more ceol agus craic sa Gaillimh). World class sailing in the Bay, Red Arrows in the sky and over 150,000 crowding the beaches - Galway's very own D-Day. Already calls are coming in for Galway to be included again in 2013. Check out the clips for the very best in sailing!

Land based salmon farming and Ireland's energy self sufficiency might be achieved if an ambitious plan to convert wind energy to hydroelectricity via sea water pumped to valleys along the western sea-board is adopted. The technology is there and it's green, green, green...but what about ranching from such sites?

Tasmanian Priest Maker had this to say after his visit to The Salmon Ponds at Plenty, New Norfolk, Tasmania "your William Ramsbottom is credited with Youl and Allport as instrumental figures in the development of the salmon and trout fishing in Tasmania c1850-60s. For more on this Google Salmon Fishing Forum for Tasmanian Priest Maker's report.

William's great, great grandchild of the world renowned pisciculturalist just made contact all the way from Northern Caifornia. Imagine having a letter extoling the efforts of your ancestors to enhance fisheries from the great Italian leader Giuseppe Garibaldi (July 4, 1807 - June 2, 1882), a hero of the Two Worlds; a tribute to his military expeditions in both South America and Europe. Well such a letter exists, an historical gem in the story of salmon culture.

Crafted by the Italian Hero after a consignment of Corrib eggs from Galway, the letter reads; Caprera, 8 Feb 1862. Dear Sir, I learn that you have been at much trouble in procuring for me a breed of salmon for this country. Accept my sincere thanks and assurances of every care being taken of them, and the hope that some day you may give me some information how they should be caught according to the gentle art, of which I am told, you are so eminent a master. Believe me your friend G. Garibaldi.
Mr. Robt. Ramsbottom, Clitheroe, Lancs., England.

He bequeathed this letter on his death in 1884 to his son Robert Ramsbottom along with an Irish silver teapot from Thomas Ashworth of the Galway Fishery. Kym put the kettle on! For more go Google Earth YouTube icon on Atlantic salmon over Salmon Ponds, Plenty. Tasmania.

For new webcams on Moy and Corrib check links in Corrib Salmon Counter clip - real time images of water levels in Ridge Pool, Ballina.

Atlantic salmon travelling at a rate of over a body length a second mainatined over 50 days at liberty as they head up into the North Atlantic. The SALSEA story hots up in 2009 with chunks of the jigsaw falling into place - Atlantic salmon stock identification from West of Donegal, West of Scotland - in fact right on up into the Norwegian Sea! More exciting results to come!

SALSEA is a scientific study of Atlantic salmon survival at sea. Falling marine survival has forced scientists to follow smolts (juvenile salmon) as they migrate into the Deep Blue to feed. So what did we find on our maiden voyage along Europe's Continental Shelf ? Suffice to say that 23 of the 27 trawls produced smolts from Malin to Faroes - Shetland, and as some of these young were marked with a microscopic coded wire tag critical speed data was generated - one of many first's for this programme.
For all the updates check out SALSEA clip, especially links to NASCO for great report of Faroese and Norwegian research.

Why not also check out Favourites for Google 5 and go Oceanic for the first time (virtual reality underwater travel - at your fingertips). Come to think of it wouldn't it be great to put up a real-time track of SALSEA results in Google Ocean at the depth the nets are towed, with a webcam on board to beam Ocean Diversity images live from the M.I. Explorer. Well just a thought!

Interesting times for the climate change canary of the North Atlantic Ocean.