Salmon and Trout Association: Blog

Attitudes

Paul Knight - February 2009

In my last blog, I mentioned an upcoming Angling Summit with Fisheries Minister, Huw Irranca-Davies. This duly happened at the end of January, and the Minister seemed genuinely interested in the diverse issues we put before him. We will be watching closely over the coming months to see what actions he takes, and what priority he gives to the protection of freshwater and marine fisheries.

I say this because I have become increasingly cynical about attitudes towards the aquatic world, and fisheries, in the past few weeks. Beavers seem to be bringing out the worst in the single issue conservation groups and regulatory authorities, with attitudes in both England and Scotland suggesting that decisions have already been taken to reintroduce these animals into the UK’s aquatic environment. This is despite serious questions being asked by organisations such as ourselves and the Tweed Foundation over the scientific basis for such decisions. In particular, no-one seems prepared to even acknowledge that fisheries habitat might be impacted by what is, after all, an alien species to the UK – the last one having been killed in Scotland in the Middle Ages.

In England, SW Water want to put beavers into the River Wolf above Roadford Reservoir, so that their dams will slow up the stream and let the silt settle out onto the gravels. They reckon this will stop excessive amounts of phosphate getting into the reservoir and causing algae blooms, which cost them millions, apparently, in clean-up costs before they can sell the water. In other words, they consider the loss of ecological and fishery habitat as being acceptable when compared to the cost of supplying water to the public; it is cost effective, especially as they can hide behind the introduction of a furry, cuddly animal which the general public will fully support.

My problem is that there always seems an excuse to muck up the environment because some other issue is considered more important. We can’t stop farmers from pouring chemicals and silt into our rivers because agriculture must take precedence over water ecology. Planners are quite happy to see urban gardens tarmaced or decked, despite the huge increase in storm run-off which increasingly pours untreated sewage into rivers because antiquated drainage just can’t cope. And, of course, because we need water to live, water companies are licensed to abstract excessively from aquifers and direct from rivers, with little more than lip service given to the environmental impact. Where is the investment into finding other, less damaging methods of storing and supplying water, or any serious attempt to get consumers to use substantially less water in the home?

My own feeling is that no one industry is so important that it can be allowed to impact the environment. We have to get away from ‘Yes…But’ politics – yes we need to protect the environment, but no we can’t, because Joe Blogs has to make a living and that’s more important than a few fish, or birds or whatever. There are only about 125 river catchments in England and Wales, and it won’t take many such decisions to seriously impact the aquatic environment, especially when global warming begins to bite and water management becomes even more crucial than it is today. Scotland is better off, because it has more rivers and there is less population to impact them, but they are by no means immune from human interference – especially the humans who want to introduce beavers without first finding out what their impact will be on salmonid rivers.

That is why I’m convinced that fisheries must start putting sound science behind our lobbying and influencing. Too many ministers and civil servants have fobbed us off in the past by saying that we are a bunch of anglers, and so we would say that, wouldn’t we? We have to become far more savvy in future, and be prepared with professional responses which cannot be ignored. That means we have to operate at a higher level than we have done before. It is why, for the first time in our history, we are now employing scientists at S&TA to give us the professional support we need to give credible alternative policies against people who see only benefit in their particular hobby horse – or beaver, or business or whatever.

We have to, as a nation, start looking at managing all our environments on an ecosystem basis – the overall habitat and ecology, not just the birds, or the animals, or the fish in isolation. We live on an over-crowded and highly managed island, and unless we take our environmental responsibilities seriously, what is left of our natural habitats and species are in for a torrid time. And, as far as the aquatic world is concerned, no-one is fighting harder for our fish and their habitats than anglers and fishery people. I sincerely hope that you are one of them – but if you’re not, rectify immediately by pressing the ‘Join Us’ button on this web site!