Help The Recovery of the Wye Salmon


Guest

/ #24

2015-01-02 18:17

Having watched the £10 million pounds worth of habitat work being undertaken on the Wye, (funded from Europe) It was very disappointed to know that Mandatory Catch & Release was implemented the year the funding ran out. The funding was NOT allowed to be used for supplementary Salmon stocking to rebuild the population which has so greatly declined.
To take Brood fish from the wild, to nurture and protect the young offspring for the first ten months of their lives, (even if you believe that the offspring are not as strong), has to be beneficial in increasing Parr/Smolt numbers. The returning adults from hatchery stocks bolster the "natural" wild fish and increase the river run of Brood fish, this creates the "natural" recovery that EA/NRW have spoken of.
Having been involved in Wye Salmon rearing for the bottom of the river, on a small private scale, and now not permitted to do so makes me very angry. When Anglers, Clubs, Associations and Federations fund their own improvement schemes, at NO cost to the Government bodies, in my view they should applauded for working to regenerate their river stocks, the alternative is to live with the consequences of the failed EA/NRW remit "to maintain and improve" fish stocks. Peter Gray and Kielder were the saviors of the Tyne,(the greatest Salmon river in England and Wales) why are no other river systems allowed to replicate it !!