Are mink the cause of Ballintotis’ fishing problems? Wednesday, July 21st, 2010 - The East Cork Journal
LOUGHADERRA at Ballintotis is widely hailed as a prime location for fishing and bird watching.
The waterways of East Cork have long been popular for fishing and wildlife, but there’s something wrong. Local fishing enthusiasts have been enjoying fewer and fewer catches in recent years. While there are several theories and explanations for this decline, there is one individual almost certainly contributing to the problem.
By individual I’m referring to a population extending across the entire East of the country, the mink. While certainly an attractive and cuddly little mammal, the mink
is also amongst the most adaptable and often considered amongst the most vicious of the wildlife in Ireland.
The mink is a semi aquatic mammal, related to the otter. Mink will prey on aquatic life, small mammals (rabbits especially), and birds, especially water fowl. Ducklings, eggs, swans and the precious corncrake are all vulnerable to predation.
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JOHN WHELAN-CURTIN INVESTIGATES
Locals involved in the control of the invasive aliens note that the signs of mink activity are rarely hard to miss.
An absence of wild water fowl, like the moor hen, is one sure sign, duckling clutches of only two or three being another, as the mink are extremely effective at whittling down numbers of young birds. Loughaderra is suspiciously scarce in moor hens, and this is considered to be a sign of serious mink activity.
Much as we might love a glimpse of this little creature as it frantically darts out of sight, each time we do it probably represents one more wild bird or fish that we won’t see again. Mink are fantastically adaptable and very efficient. They have been reported to have been having serious effects on a massive range of fish and birds. A single mink has been considered responsible for decimating an entire colony of terns. Full time trappers are being employed to try and control mink in Donegal, West Mayo, Connemara and Banagher, while government reports clearly show that the greatest populations probably exist along the East coast, including East Cork. Trapping has been recommended by reports as the most humane way to control mink populations, allowing to identify the animal as definitely being a mink and then safely,
Mink are not native to Ireland. It is widely believed, a view shared by government reports, that the mink is present in Ireland as a result of escapes from fur farms, and has been sustainably reproducing since the 1980s.
There are widely held beliefs that activists have released significant numbers of mink from these farms.
In an act intended to be humane for the sake of the mink, these actions may have had devastating effects on the wildlife of Ireland.
DAKOTA
and humanely, “euthanising” with an air rifle.
Again, some of those involved in controlling mink have assured me of the humane means they use when controlling mink. The individuals involved in mink control appear to be, almost without exception, utterly concerned with preserving nature and maintaining a rigorous high standard of humane euthanasia. One spot on waterways not far from Loughaderra and Ballyhonock Lake has had traps reportedly yield more than 50 mink, making it clear that there is a serious problem with their numbers. We might love to see exotic and interesting little animals like the mink, but hopefully we love our native wildlife a little bit more. If the mink is left unchecked we could actually be in danger of losing a huge range of our native fauna, and it appears to be an unfortunate fact of life that it needs to be controlled.
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