I knew the allis shad was now very rare but I didn't realise that they hybridised. I also did not know that it is now illegal to fish for twaite shad. Probably rightly so. This raises a question. Something that has been puzzling me for a while. It is illegal to deliberately fish with rod a line for shad, and the Scottish powan and vendace, yet there is a commercial fishery for the endangered pollan on Lough Neagh. Not only that, it has a protected food provenance label for that area of Northern Ireland. I know Lough Neagh is huge, but as the pollan is declining in other Irish Loughs, how can this be a sustainable fishery for such a rare fish?
