A plague on all our fish
Spring salmon runs appear to be improving again this year on the East Coast of Scotland. It's always difficult to link cause and effect but I don't think there is any coincidence that this improvement has arisen after concerted efforts by the North Atlantic Salmon Fund to buy off netting interests in Greenland, The Faroe Islands, Norway and the North East coast of England.
These efforts led by NASF chairman Orri Vigfusson and backed by generous donations often from wealthy individuals who simply love fishing, have used the commercial system in support of rod and line angling.
Buying netting interests in the marketplace might seem a simple, if expensive, solution to overfishing. But alone it does not provide a sustainable alternative to support the livelihoods of those who sell out. This is why a second strand of Vigfusson's work - ensuring that fishermen have viable alternatives to earn their income - is so important.
In 2006 some £340,000 was spent in Greenland and the Faroes, helping commercial fishermen buy the equipment and expertise they need to switch either to other forms of fishing or other types of work.
End to fishing
I believe that within 50 years most commercial fishing, at least as we know it now, will have been either severely curtailed or ended completely. Drag netting the ocean bed has to stop. Factory fishing our oceans is simply unsustainable. Where it may continue is in specific fishing-designated areas of ocean among stocks that can be sustained through seeding - a kind of farming without cages.
Elsewhere fish farming practices need to improve dramatically if the industry is to rid itself of a poor reputation in fish husbandry. Fish farms should be removed from areas where there is too little current to wash away fish waste and repositioned either in sites where good flows are maintained or in the open-sea where fish lice cannot invade migratory stocks. At the same time farms need to be made more secure to stop escapes. More than a million salmon escaped from Scottish fish farms in 2005. We can only guess at the impact that is creating on the diverse genetic strains that have developed in different river systems.
In the meantime anglers cannot afford to be complacent about their sport. Too often I hear fishermen moaning about various predators. Seals, cormorants and red breasted mergansers are high on the Scottish hate lists. For the trout streams some (not me) would include pike, even the graceful grayling which is sometimes perceived as a competitor for the the cossetted trout.
Killing grayling
Only a year ago I was invited to fish a stretch of chalk stream where I was asked to remove any grayling I had caught. I put back those I caught but it was a sad sight to see rotting fish left on the bank side by other anglers. I thought this practiceof treating Grayling as vermin had stopped but it still goes on. Sure, Grayling will eat trout fry, just as trout will eat Grayling fry. They eat pike fry too.
I know river keepers who will remove a big pike from a chalk stream, yet this same fish might have been praying on other small pike as well as weak and diseased game fish. Predation is necessary to ensure a balanced and thriving ecosystem.
If we're really concerned about predators in English rivers why not make it open season for the American signal crayfish? They're a pest in our rivers and they make good eating so there's a double bonus in catching them. The Environment Agency has been cautious about giving blanket approval for trapping but its timidity is misplaced. As long as people can tell the difference between native and signal crayfish I can't see the problem.
On a stretch of the Lambourne I visited last year I saw a lot of traps set by the river keeper. The traps were unloaded daily in to a cage placed in the river near the fishing hut, enabling anglers to load up with crayfish. I took a bag home and boiled them in salty water. They made for good eating with water cress and mayonaise.
Longest stock pond
Trout worship, on the other hand, can go too far. I have heard the river Test described as "England's longest stock pond". Chalk streams have been managed expertly for generations but management must be inclusive and not confined to a single species. Anglers like to style themselves as custodians of rivers but they cannot keep them to themselves. Pressure for better access by walkers and canoeists is growing and fishing is going to have to find ways of accommodating these other interests.
One way of doing so is to improve all round education so that all river users can get a better understanding of our waterways.
Nowhere is this more important than in spreading awareness of Gyrodactylus salaris. Just now this salmon parasite does not exist in British or Irish waters. It has destroyed salmon strains in rivers on the continent, wiping out stocks in more than 40 Norwegian rivers. Once in a system it is extremely difficult to eradicate.
This is why Iceland, that is also free of the parasite, has introduced a tackle disinfecting policy at the airport for all visiting anglers who cannot produce a certificate of disinfection from their home country. In Norway tackle is disinfected at the side of the river. Treating your kit with chemicals is a real pain, particularly when you know you haven't been near a potentially infected river for some time. I'm not convinced that this policy is going to work. If the parasite gets in, it will do so through ignorance.
Originally Gyrodactylus - which occurs naturally in the Baltic rivers of Sweden, Finland and Russia where fish stocks have built up some natural resistance - was transferred to Norway in farmed fish from Sweden and found its way in to the wild population. As far as I can see the spread of the parasite in most if not all cases been blamed on stocking from infected hatcheries.
Scottish fears
This has been devastating for Norway. But imagine the catastrophe if it got in to the Scottish river system where the reach of tributaries is far more extensive than that of the relatively short Norwegian rivers. Most of the advice I have heard warns of the danger of transfer on fishing gear but the parasite, in theory at least, could be transferred also on the damp neoprene of a canoeist's or wind surfer's wet suit.
Scientists, however, have admitted that such transfers are highly unlikely, probably on a par with the risk of catching venereal disease from a toilet seat. These are parasites that cannot live out of water and cannot survive very long without a host. The biggest danger of transfer is in the movement of fish and that must be policed rigorously.
For peace of mind all round it's sensible to ensure your equipment has been dry for a couple of days after fishing anywhere near an infected area. Alternatively sticking your gear in a deep freeze for a day will do the job. Disinfecting chemicals include: Aquatic, Wescodyne, sodium chloride and sodium hydroxide.
Should Scottish rivers introduce a disinfecting policy? I think that detailed education is preferable. Of course that does not prevent laziness among those who can't be bothered to take precautions and that's where peer pressure has a role.
The real ignorance is not in angling but elsewhere. When I rang my local vet about a disinfecting service ahead of a trip to Iceland last year they had no idea what I was talking about. Even at Reykjavik airport the service was pretty rudimentary. They dipped my rods and took my word for it that my other kit was OK. So why bother dipping the rods?
This morning in a package of tackle, bought mail order from Sportfish, I received an information leaflet on Gyrodactylus salaris issued by the Scottish Executive Environment and Rural Affairs Department (SEERAD). Here is the DEFRA version. All tackle suppliers should be doing the same. It's such an easy way to educate people. Every angler loves to dream about fishing and I do as much as anyone. But sometimes we have to think too about the nightmare. Gyrodactylus in Scotland - that's my nightmare.
NB. I noticed that the leaflet described Iceland as a "country with unknown status" in regard to Gyrodactylus salaris. That will be news to the Icelanders who operate far more stringent controls than the Scots and who, financially, have more to lose. Take away salmon fishing from Iceland and what have you got? A lot of hot air and the Blue Lagoon.
Interesting nugget: The majority of Icelanders believe in elves.
These efforts led by NASF chairman Orri Vigfusson and backed by generous donations often from wealthy individuals who simply love fishing, have used the commercial system in support of rod and line angling.
Buying netting interests in the marketplace might seem a simple, if expensive, solution to overfishing. But alone it does not provide a sustainable alternative to support the livelihoods of those who sell out. This is why a second strand of Vigfusson's work - ensuring that fishermen have viable alternatives to earn their income - is so important.
In 2006 some £340,000 was spent in Greenland and the Faroes, helping commercial fishermen buy the equipment and expertise they need to switch either to other forms of fishing or other types of work.
End to fishing
I believe that within 50 years most commercial fishing, at least as we know it now, will have been either severely curtailed or ended completely. Drag netting the ocean bed has to stop. Factory fishing our oceans is simply unsustainable. Where it may continue is in specific fishing-designated areas of ocean among stocks that can be sustained through seeding - a kind of farming without cages.
Elsewhere fish farming practices need to improve dramatically if the industry is to rid itself of a poor reputation in fish husbandry. Fish farms should be removed from areas where there is too little current to wash away fish waste and repositioned either in sites where good flows are maintained or in the open-sea where fish lice cannot invade migratory stocks. At the same time farms need to be made more secure to stop escapes. More than a million salmon escaped from Scottish fish farms in 2005. We can only guess at the impact that is creating on the diverse genetic strains that have developed in different river systems.
In the meantime anglers cannot afford to be complacent about their sport. Too often I hear fishermen moaning about various predators. Seals, cormorants and red breasted mergansers are high on the Scottish hate lists. For the trout streams some (not me) would include pike, even the graceful grayling which is sometimes perceived as a competitor for the the cossetted trout.
Killing grayling
Only a year ago I was invited to fish a stretch of chalk stream where I was asked to remove any grayling I had caught. I put back those I caught but it was a sad sight to see rotting fish left on the bank side by other anglers. I thought this practiceof treating Grayling as vermin had stopped but it still goes on. Sure, Grayling will eat trout fry, just as trout will eat Grayling fry. They eat pike fry too.
I know river keepers who will remove a big pike from a chalk stream, yet this same fish might have been praying on other small pike as well as weak and diseased game fish. Predation is necessary to ensure a balanced and thriving ecosystem.
If we're really concerned about predators in English rivers why not make it open season for the American signal crayfish? They're a pest in our rivers and they make good eating so there's a double bonus in catching them. The Environment Agency has been cautious about giving blanket approval for trapping but its timidity is misplaced. As long as people can tell the difference between native and signal crayfish I can't see the problem.
On a stretch of the Lambourne I visited last year I saw a lot of traps set by the river keeper. The traps were unloaded daily in to a cage placed in the river near the fishing hut, enabling anglers to load up with crayfish. I took a bag home and boiled them in salty water. They made for good eating with water cress and mayonaise.
Longest stock pond
Trout worship, on the other hand, can go too far. I have heard the river Test described as "England's longest stock pond". Chalk streams have been managed expertly for generations but management must be inclusive and not confined to a single species. Anglers like to style themselves as custodians of rivers but they cannot keep them to themselves. Pressure for better access by walkers and canoeists is growing and fishing is going to have to find ways of accommodating these other interests.
One way of doing so is to improve all round education so that all river users can get a better understanding of our waterways.
Nowhere is this more important than in spreading awareness of Gyrodactylus salaris. Just now this salmon parasite does not exist in British or Irish waters. It has destroyed salmon strains in rivers on the continent, wiping out stocks in more than 40 Norwegian rivers. Once in a system it is extremely difficult to eradicate.
This is why Iceland, that is also free of the parasite, has introduced a tackle disinfecting policy at the airport for all visiting anglers who cannot produce a certificate of disinfection from their home country. In Norway tackle is disinfected at the side of the river. Treating your kit with chemicals is a real pain, particularly when you know you haven't been near a potentially infected river for some time. I'm not convinced that this policy is going to work. If the parasite gets in, it will do so through ignorance.
Originally Gyrodactylus - which occurs naturally in the Baltic rivers of Sweden, Finland and Russia where fish stocks have built up some natural resistance - was transferred to Norway in farmed fish from Sweden and found its way in to the wild population. As far as I can see the spread of the parasite in most if not all cases been blamed on stocking from infected hatcheries.
Scottish fears
This has been devastating for Norway. But imagine the catastrophe if it got in to the Scottish river system where the reach of tributaries is far more extensive than that of the relatively short Norwegian rivers. Most of the advice I have heard warns of the danger of transfer on fishing gear but the parasite, in theory at least, could be transferred also on the damp neoprene of a canoeist's or wind surfer's wet suit.
Scientists, however, have admitted that such transfers are highly unlikely, probably on a par with the risk of catching venereal disease from a toilet seat. These are parasites that cannot live out of water and cannot survive very long without a host. The biggest danger of transfer is in the movement of fish and that must be policed rigorously.
For peace of mind all round it's sensible to ensure your equipment has been dry for a couple of days after fishing anywhere near an infected area. Alternatively sticking your gear in a deep freeze for a day will do the job. Disinfecting chemicals include: Aquatic, Wescodyne, sodium chloride and sodium hydroxide.
Should Scottish rivers introduce a disinfecting policy? I think that detailed education is preferable. Of course that does not prevent laziness among those who can't be bothered to take precautions and that's where peer pressure has a role.
The real ignorance is not in angling but elsewhere. When I rang my local vet about a disinfecting service ahead of a trip to Iceland last year they had no idea what I was talking about. Even at Reykjavik airport the service was pretty rudimentary. They dipped my rods and took my word for it that my other kit was OK. So why bother dipping the rods?
This morning in a package of tackle, bought mail order from Sportfish, I received an information leaflet on Gyrodactylus salaris issued by the Scottish Executive Environment and Rural Affairs Department (SEERAD). Here is the DEFRA version. All tackle suppliers should be doing the same. It's such an easy way to educate people. Every angler loves to dream about fishing and I do as much as anyone. But sometimes we have to think too about the nightmare. Gyrodactylus in Scotland - that's my nightmare.
NB. I noticed that the leaflet described Iceland as a "country with unknown status" in regard to Gyrodactylus salaris. That will be news to the Icelanders who operate far more stringent controls than the Scots and who, financially, have more to lose. Take away salmon fishing from Iceland and what have you got? A lot of hot air and the Blue Lagoon.
Interesting nugget: The majority of Icelanders believe in elves.
Labels: Blue Lagoon, Environment Agency, Faroes, Grayling, Greenland, Gyrodactylus salaris, mergansers, NASF, Norway, Orri Vigfusson, record salmon, Reykjavik
posted by Richard Donkin at
9:49 AM
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