Just seen this post on the salmon fishing forum from the Wye Messiah so I think I need to put a few things straight. This is what he said;
"Interesting idea Ross. Why doesn't WUF arrange something along the lines of WSA or even with them? There is no shortage of fishing, including my own GLLR which took 132 last year. WSA is a curious animal, quick to acknowledge and take credit for the rise in catches.....privately even admiting that WUF brought this about but nothing is spared in trying to run us down and take support away. It is a truly schizophrenic 'organisation' in this respect. It deploys its ghillies section to rubbish every action we take. Yes, we do raise money to carry out the work, for example. Oddly enough materials, vehicles, staff and the like need to be paid for. WSA can enjoy the credit it takes for reducing the amount of investment and support the Wye has received. But what would the Wye be like now if we hadn't bought the nets off, built the fish passes, sorted out the acid waters, fenced out the damaged tributaries, halted the flow of farm pollution, spent 8 years with a successful project to reduce abstraction?
How much quicker would recovery have been if there had been full support? Your tenner goes to an organisation hell bent on continuing the conflict it thrives on and will no doubt continue to apply steady pressure to halt recovery."
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First of all this blog has nothing whatsoever to do with WSA. It now has nothing to do with RWGA which has now disbanded and many of it's member joined with WSA. They have no more influence in that organisation than anyone else.
The reports and comments in this blog are my own. FULL STOP.
He, Messiah, ask what the Wye would be like if we hadn't bought the nets off.
Well we don't know for sure but it surely helped. RWGA contributed considerably to the so called putcher buy out too. How much of the money was contributed by WUF or its staff personally. Zilch I suspect.
Building fish passes.
We don't know if this has helped or not. There is NO evidence. Few fish and plenty of available habitat so what exactly would the fish passes do. Take the case of the Monnow - Then quite frankly - NOTHING.
Sorted out the acid waters. Oh REALLY . where is the evidence. Have you seen the Irfon after a spate recently.
Fenced off tributaries. So what. mostly a waste of time and an ongoing maintainance problem. NO evidence its produced a single extra fish. He never mentioned blockage removal which certainly had a severe impact on some streams and which since they have backtracked on.
Halted the flow of farm pollution. Absolute rubbish. Again no evidence. If there has been any reduction, on a watershed the size of the Wye it would be undetectable.
Abstraction. REALLY Why not give so us some evidence of this. as usual a project is made, a success claim is made but NO evidence.
He ask's how much quicker recovery might have been had WUF had more support.
WUF never wanted to work with anyone who might question, even slightly, an action they wanted to take. Hence the steady flow of decent people =experts in their own field who after a short engagement promptly left or were asked to leave.
RWGA several times offered the olive branch to work with them but were rejected . Oh dear no -there might be something they don't want us to know. We don't know a fraction of what went on behind closed doors or how the grants were obtained for instance.
WE did not rubbish every action they take but at least require some transparency and evidence that what they do is working to even the smallest degree, especially if its undetectable by those actually on the river on a daily basis. The rod catch is not always a good indicator is it.
As far as I am concerned I shall continue to report as I see it and how it's reported to me by others. WUF has taken NO notice of anglers over the years and not always worked in their best interests in my opinion. It's been a one man band and probably still is. A very good living has been had by a lot of people - they need to show us some peer reviewed evidence that what they did actually had an effect and more to the point was value for money.
That's my opinion and I am entitled to it!!!!
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