CAMPAIGN FOR THE PROTECTION OF WELSH FISHERIES

 

Contents

Executive summary. 2

Who we are. 2

Assessment of threats and impacts to stocks. 2

Objections to NRW technical Conservation case for byelaw measures. 4

Options for sustainable management 4

Socio and economic considerations. 5

Imposing discriminatory Method restrictions on Fisheries. 5

Conclusions & Recommendations. 6

 

Executive summary

Who we are

The Campaign for the Protection of Welsh Fisheries (CPWF) is a voluntary organisation supported by angling organisations from across Wales.  We are a self funded voluntary organisation with considerable experience in managing fisheries, we have worked alongside several noted fisheries scientists over the past few years whilst carrying out fish surveys on behalf of rivers trusts, we know and understand our own rivers, each is unique, there is not a one size fits all solution which will resolve the decline in migratory fish stocks.  Our primary concern is the protection of fisheries and conservation of migratory fish.

Assessment of threats and impacts to stocks

We noted in the papers submitted to the NRW Board in 2018 with respect to the proposed byelaws for the cross border river Dee the statement below.  This statement is an acceptance that NRW is slow to respond and is resource constrained.  The proposed byelaws appear to be a stop gap in order to buy more time and rely upon the poor recruitment in 2015/2016 as a justification to impose restrictions on anglers despite the knowledge that the poor recruitment was due to adverse weather conditions and that anglers are not the root cause of the decline in migratory fish stocks.  This is what was said:

“Our ability to assess stocks and implement measures in response to declining abundance is resource-intense, as well as being slow to respond in a timely manner. We need a system that allows us to assess and respond to changes in stock abundance more quickly.

We note more prompt action is now taken in other jurisdictions (notably Scotland and Ireland), and we have committed to ongoing work with the EA and Cefas to design and implement a new annual assessment and response cycle by the time of a 5-year review. We reiterate that commitment here.”

“Resource constraints in both NRW and WG restrict our ability to move more quickly towards resolution. However, this matter is recognised by both organisations as a very high priority.”

The above statement demonstrates the uncertainty of the NRW Technical Case and that the proposals are simply a stop gap in order to devise a more accurate and effective way of assessing migratory fish stocks.  Imposing legislation rather than working with stakeholders who NRW accepts know their own rivers best river beggars belief.

The Technical Case document produced by NRW contains 150 pages with eight supporting Annexe papers and is a comprehensive amalgam of arguments to support the NRW Option 2 byelaw proposals, but has fundamental flaws and weaknesses in its interpretation and presentation of critical core data for stocks and their condition status.  CPWF maintain this is not the only option and that other options dismissed by NRW present a better long term strategy for sustainable migratory stocks whilst maintaining important socio and economic considerations and perhaps more importantly engage with stakeholders who care about their rivers.

An actual impact assessment to life cycle phases is absent in the NRW Technical Case which should demonstrate and prioritise a targeted strategy for addressing the greater manageable impacts and threats to stocks.

We have produced a simplified diagram below which demonstrates that the greatest losses are due to mortality from egg to fry to parr and more significantly the loss of migrating smolts to avian predators (goosanders/mergansers/cormorants) before they reach the sea.  Nothing in the NRW proposed byelaws address the areas shown in red.  It is also unclear if the marine losses are based upon the carrying capacity of a river assuming all the smolts reach the sea i.e. for the diagram are the marine losses calculated on 150,000 smolts reaching the sea or 75,000 smolts reaching the sea.  Losses from egg to parr are difficult, and potentially costly to address however losses to avian predators can be easily resolved; instead NRW chooses to target anglers who have the least impact on fish stocks.

 

 

In terms of proportionality in the context of UK Administrative Law:

(a)  the legislative objective is sufficiently important to justify limiting a fundamental right;

(b)  the measures designed to meet the legislative objective are rationally connected to it; and

(c)  the means used to impair the right are no more than is necessary to accomplish the objective.

 

The objective of the byelaw proposals is to reverse the decline in migratory fish stocks and it is clear from the diagram above that angling has the least impact on fish stocks: therefore “the means used to impair the right are no more than is necessary to accomplish the objective” and it is clear that the “means” are disproportionate as the proposals will not achieve the objective, after more than 20 years of catch and release up to 16 June there has been no significant improvement in the spring salmon stocks.

Focusing on the areas in red in the above diagram would have far more effect in reversing the decline in migratory fish stocks.  The objective is to get more smolts to sea and the proposals patently won’t achieve this.  Using the Dee (an index river) as an example 100% catch and release would increase egg deposition by 1.6% above the present voluntary catch and release level.  Smolt trapping on the river Dee by NRW estimated a loss of some 50% from the smolt trap at Worthenbury some six miles above the tide and the smolt trap at Flint in the tidal section just before the fish enter the Irish sea, dealing with the predation by saw billed ducks in the lower river as a short term measure would have a far greater effect on fish stocks.

 

 

Objections to NRW technical Conservation case for byelaw measures

Our objections refer to the following sections in the NRW Technical Case and we detail these objections in our evidence paper:

Section	Topic
2	Assessing and managing stocks of salmon and sea trout in Wales: pages 26 – 38
4	Current Status of Welsh salmon and sea trout stocks: pages 48 – 61
6	Options for sustainable Management  – salmon & sea trout : pages 93 – 98
8	Conclusions: pages137 – 140
Annex 3	Fish & Fishery monitoring data: catchment rod and net catches; juvenile salmon and trout data
Annex 4	Salmon management conservation limits, management targets and “The Decision Structure”
Annex 5	Sea trout (stock recruitment) stock assessment
Annex 8	Management in other jurisdictions

We have covered the detail in the sections after the executive summary.

Options for sustainable management

Government guidelines on byelaws recommends that alternatives should be considered i.e. could the objective be achieved in any other way, short of a byelaw? It is clear from the statement to the NRW Board, highlighted on Page 1, that NRW are only now considering alternatives presumably due to the joint pressure that has been put on the EA and NRW by anglers.  Up to this point NRW has resolutely refused to consider alternatives and have pursued their preferred option, presumably due to resource constraints and personal beliefs.

The proposed regulatory controls when applied in a well-managed fishery provide only a marginal benefit to spawning stocks yet undermine voluntary programmes protecting fish stocks and wider river corridor improvements.  The following table for salmon caught in the river Dee demonstrates the limited increase in numbers of spawning fish should mandatory catch and release be imposed;

 

It is clear from the above table that progress has been made since 2010 with voluntary catch and release; it should be borne in mind that angling is not a particularly efficient method of catching salmon.  It is claimed by NRW that anglers typically catch between 10% and 15% of the total number of salmon in a river system; the estimated catch has a significant effect on the calculation of the conservation limit i.e. yet another variable which skews the results.

The above table shows that 2017 would have seen 39 additional fish that would have survived to spawn and only about half would be female.  Based upon anglers catching 10% of the salmon stock in the river Dee in 2017 there would be 2,080 salmon spawning, so introduction of mandatory catch and release would contribute less than 2% of additional spawning fish.  This is hardly a valid basis for the introduction of additional legislation as it clearly has limited effect.  On many rivers angling effort is now so low that far fewer than 10% of the fish are caught and the potential benefits are further reduced.

Socio and economic considerations

NRW has based its conclusions on the social economic impacts on the river Wye following extensive (and costly) river restoration.  The Wye is unique in Wales with the fishing rights in the main being owned by private estates, this is not the case in most other Welsh regions where local angling clubs either own or rent the fishing rights.  There has been little concern or understanding of the much smaller spate rivers of Wales and the effects of banning bait fishing (worm/shrimp) on these small rivers.  In effect the proposals will render most of the smaller rivers of Wales unsuitable for fishing as they can only be effectively fished with bait.  The proposals in their present form will see many community clubs close as members drop out of their clubs as they can no longer fish due to method restrictions.  To counter this NRW suggests that they will assist clubs in promoting trout and coarse fishing. Other than the rivers Dee and Wye there are no significant coarse fish populations in the majority of Welsh game rivers and there is no shortage of stocked still water trout fisheries.  Members primarily join local clubs to fish for salmon and sea trout as do visiting anglers who also purchase tickets.

Imposing discriminatory Method restrictions on Fisheries

From discussions with NRW it is clear that they have formed their opinion on bait fishing from broodstock collection of salmon from the river Taff.  We have been advised that broodstock caught on worm all died at the Cynrig hatchery and NRW uses this as a basis for their ban on bait fishing.

Prior to the enforced closure of third party stocking in Wales the Mawddach and Conwy stocking programs caught broodstock using various methods including worm and shrimp.  Whilst we had an odd fish each year which died from stress having been removed from their natal river to a hatchery on a strange river this occurred despite the method used.  We experienced fish dying which had been caught using fly/spinner/worm/shrimp, having said this we lost very few fish during our stocking programs.

The impression is that NRW are banning worm fishing based on personal preference using the excuse that some fish which had been removed from the Taff and taken to the Cynrig hatchery on the Usk had died.  We have no information on the numbers of fish or how these fish were caught and handled but it is a convenient excuse to ban bait fishing on the rivers of Wales irrespective of the impact this will have on local community fishing clubs on small spate rivers which are only suitable for bait fishing.

The NRW concession that anglers fishing for sea trout can use a single worm makes no sense if salmon are present this was a last minute concession following a challenge on the effect the ban on bait fishing has on disability discrimination, a CPWF member met with the Welsh Government Cabinet Secretary and raised this issue.  The days of anglers who fish with worm waiting until the salmon has swallowed the worm has long since gone most salmon fishers who fish worm and voluntary return their fish do so with no more harm than any other method.  Following fly fishing the least damaging method of salmon fishing is with shrimp, NRW ban this method claiming that this is only used in low water when oxygen levels are low and as such fish may not recover after being caught.  If this is the case then all fishing in low, warm water, conditions should also be banned, spinning causes far more damage to fish and yet on some rivers this is permitted from the start of the season.

I terms of hook selection a study in North America found that hook selection has little or no influence on fish survival.  The study was based upon the capture of lake trout which were then put into a recovery tank, it made little difference if barbed or debarbed hooks were used or if the hooks were single/double/treble.  The major influence in fish mortality was the length of time a fish was played before landing and the temperature of the water.  During the Scottish Dee radio tracking program where salmon were rod caught and a record kept of the hook size and location of the hook in the fish’s mouth there was no recorded difference in the survival of the fish irrespective of the hook type.

Enforcement of legislation

The proposed legislation, if implemented, will be difficult to police and nearly impossible to enforce.  The NRW enforcement team consists of 16 FTE officers to cover the whole of Wales.  This level of resource is clearly inadequate however furthermore these officers are not dedicated to fisheries work and have other duties to perform i.e. pollution investigation, fly tipping and cockle bed patrols.  The enforcement teams are ‘intelligence lead’, all this means is any incident reported is logged but no action is taken e.g. a report of poachers on a river will be assessed and, as officers are not allowed to work alone if there is more than one poacher, there will be no response.  In terms of tariffs (fines a court can make) a poacher, should they be caught, can be fined up to £250, whereas a licensed angler, should they be caught taking a salmon before the 16 June, can be fined up to £1000.  A poacher may kill many fish but an angler who takes a fish which they could not revive will be treated more harshly simply because they have purchased a rod licence.

NRW has stated that, if legislation is introduced, anglers ‘will do the right thing’ but this is a bit like saying drivers will observe speed limits, some do but many don’t as there is little chance of being caught.  The same will apply to enforcing any legislation by NRW in the misguided attempt to improve fish stocks. The very low number of NRW Enforcement Officers makes the apprehension of offenders unlikely.  Co-operation and not legislation is needed, we all have a common goal sadly the cheapest option for NRW is to legislate.

Conclusions & Recommendations

We have concluded that, in the absence of validation of a quality assured national system, introducing 10 year mandatory byelaws formed on flawed data and current methodology would be open to challenge.

CPWF are quite clear that the Technical Case options for sustainable management have not considered the full range of options open to restore sustainable stocks, both in terms of voluntary options and other enforcing measures (limits/tagging etc) that will secure rod fisheries cooperation for the future management of the fishery.

Instead of working with stakeholders NRW has chosen a route which effectively drives a wedge between themselves and those who own and care for our rivers.  Should these proposals be adopted in their present form, the repercussions for locally run clubs are dire with many being unable to pay their rents to landowners due to loss of membership.   The economic impact on rural communities has been dismissed by NRW who claim that there will only be a temporary decline in fishing effort.  This is appears based on the river Wye, a premier salmon river which has seen many millions invested in an attempt to reverse the decline in salmon stocks, this has only had limited success and could not be replicated on the majority of rivers in Wales.

We have requested the Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs to defer any recommendations from the inquiry until 2020 to remove the uncertainty angler’s face in 2019.  To introduce changes after the fishing season commences will have a damaging effect on many local clubs in Wales as members will not rejoin in 2019 if they can no longer fish due to method restrictions.  The indecision in 2018 saw several clubs having difficulty in paying their rents due to reduced membership; the drought of 2018 has seen sales of day tickets from visitors drop causing further financial stress.  There are ways forward without penalising anglers but NRW has chosen to ignore these.  We set out in our paper to demonstrate the flaws in the NRW Technical Case which underpins their proposals.

 

 

 

Contributors:

Chris White                 CPWF

John Eardley:              CPWF

Paul King:                    Vale of Clwyd Angling Club

Reuben Woodford:     Ogwen Valley Angling Association/Penrhyn Fishing Club

Mike Ashwin:              North West Angling Trust Fisheries Consultative Committee

 

Background information