Anyway raised glasses at WUF who can now celebrate something that might have worked better than the mess they have us in now, this despite running two hatcheries themselves over the years, doing catch up for the EA hatchery and stocking out all over the place -all the time believing that stocking was harmful. How hypocritical, dishonest, but pretty typical is that!
More later.
This is how it will be in the future. Another long term exercise repeating what has already failed on the Wye and Usk Word on the block says that the fish netted in the picture was a reconditioned kelt from Maerdy hatchery. How dishonest and ironic is that. These guys could'nt lie straight in bed could they.
See video at
http://youtu.be/uOFkjT1eyx8
By the way the press release included this;
The decision has gained support from Stephen Marsh Smith OBE (Order of Bullshitters Extrordinaer) who said;
"NRW have been very courageous in these proposals, challenging what are some extremely entrenched beliefs.
Although it may be argued given the weight of scientific evidence the cessation of stocking is long overdue.historically, changes to any fishery management or byelaw have invariably been watered down to get past a minority of critics.
This time the new organisation has gone with the evidence and honoured the sustainable principles honoured in their name.
Well there you have it. What a turncoat, what an unprincipled individual who in my opinion would not know honour if it stared him in the face and certainly not scientific principles.
As for byelaws being watered down do you see any? Shorter season -except for the back end of course), no worming, no prawning or shrimping, 100% catch and release. Just what else would he like I wonder. No salmon fishing while barbel anglers are present perhaps.
The only reason behind this for WUF is the promise no doubt of entra funding to continue doing what they have been doing for the last 18 years. after all they do have a £500.000 plus.wage bill to find every year
By the way the press release included this;
The decision has gained support from Stephen Marsh Smith OBE (Order of Bullshitters Extrordinaer) who said;
"NRW have been very courageous in these proposals, challenging what are some extremely entrenched beliefs.
Although it may be argued given the weight of scientific evidence the cessation of stocking is long overdue.historically, changes to any fishery management or byelaw have invariably been watered down to get past a minority of critics.
This time the new organisation has gone with the evidence and honoured the sustainable principles honoured in their name.
Well there you have it. What a turncoat, what an unprincipled individual who in my opinion would not know honour if it stared him in the face and certainly not scientific principles.
As for byelaws being watered down do you see any? Shorter season -except for the back end of course), no worming, no prawning or shrimping, 100% catch and release. Just what else would he like I wonder. No salmon fishing while barbel anglers are present perhaps.
The only reason behind this for WUF is the promise no doubt of entra funding to continue doing what they have been doing for the last 18 years. after all they do have a £500.000 plus.wage bill to find every year
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Some informatuion from someone at the meeting;
All,
Five of us attended the NRW
Board meeting today and to say it was a travesty would be an
understatement.
The NRW Board presentations
on hatchery closure were made by Ceri Davies and Peter Gough supported by Mike
Evans (NRW Evidence support – whatever that is!). Mike told me before the
meeting that they had clear genetic evidence that stocking is harmful – I asked
him to prove this and he said NRW would be publishing a paper shortly!
The Board seem to have been
convinced by the evidence from the Taff that stocking is harmful, this is based
upon the research which has been carried out by Swansea University and is based
on genetic information apparently demonstrating that stocked fish breed with
wild fish (what a surprise!) which it was claimed is harmful as it reduces the
fitness of the offspring. I doubt that anyone on the Board has ever
watched fish on redds or for that matter read the information on salmon egg
fertilisation by Prof Jones from Liverpool University who set up a glass box on
the Alwen (a tributary of the Dee) and filmed salmon spawning. It was Pof
Jones who first noted precautious parr fertilising eggs. Our hatchery
experience is that precautious parr are far more potent than mature cocks
whether or not the retuning adults from eggs fertilised by parr are smaller is
not known. Our hatchery produced parr are fertilised by two different
cocks and a parr to introduce genetic variations, in the wild hens are
fertilised by opportunist cocks and parr as well as the bigger cock.
Only opinions are expressed
in the attached Annex’s there was no conclusive evidence, at one point Peter
Gough said ‘that they estimate the returns from stocked fish can vary from 0.2%
to 6%’ this just about sums up the whole fiasco with regards objective evidence
or should I say the lack of it.
Prof Lynda Warren said that
there was evidence that stocking is harmful (from the papers presented to the
Board – not from objective evidence) and therefore it should be stopped
immediately by both NRW and third parties, she referred to the genetic studies
on the Taff by Swansea University as evidence.
We got chance to talk to some
of the Board members before the meeting and at the coffee break. It was
apparent that a decision had been made to ignore our complaints. It seems
that the Taff genetic report carries more weight than practical experience as
apparently genetic mixing is in some way harmful to salmon populations unlike
the rest of the living world where genetic mixing is essential to prevent
in-breeding!
There was only one dissenting
voice on the Board the rest seem to have been brow beaten (by Lynda Warren?)
into agreeing that as stocking is harmful it should cease - immediately.
Harry Legg-Burke raised the issue of third party stocking as some hatcheries in
Wales produce fish for England and it was agreed that any hatchery in Wales
producing salmon/sea trout could continue to do so – but they can’t be stocked
into Welsh rivers!
I need to get hold of the
genetic report on the Taff which contains the damming evidence if anyone has a
copy can they send it to me please, the reference within Annex 2 (attached) I
have been told has been somewhat selective in its data source. I will
request this genetic information from NRW but I am not sure if I will get this
quickly.
In his summing up on the
agreement by the Board to the closure of hatcheries the Chairman (Peter
Mathews) asked for an action plan. This was challenged by Prof Lynda
Warren (who had a lot to say!) who said that she had piles of action plans
on her desk and did not want any more. The Chairman changed this to say
he wanted to see ‘actions’ by the next meeting but precisely what actions were
to be carried out was not made clear. It was clear that other than
closing the hatcheries there was nobody around the table who had any idea of
exactly how ‘environmental improvements’ could be made all that was mentioned
was the opening up of new spawning grounds – we are not short of spawning areas
we are short of fish to spawn in them. The general impression is lets
close the hatcheries and then worry about the details later.
Some of you may have seen the
article in the Daily Post today (http://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-wales-news/battle-save-welsh-salmon-stocks-7873009
) I have to thank Andrew Forgrave for all the support he has given me. I
had a call from Andrew Forgrave after the meeting and he took statements from
me representing Conwy Valley Fisheries & Conservation Association and John
Roe representing Dee Fisheries Association and talked to Michael Stirk of the
Dee Trust.
I have received a response
from Fish Legal via my club which is not very helpful but this is what I
expected as the Angling Trust supports hatchery closure. I will respond
to this over the weekend as they have asked for more information.
As far as I can see from the
so called evidence in the attached Annex’s the decision to close the hatcheries
seems to be based on ‘A scientific consensus on salmon stocking’ (Annex 3) the
key word here is ‘consensus’ this is not evidence it is merely ‘opinion’.
Whilst I will attempt to challenge this via the Welsh Government I think the
decision will stand but we may be able to reverse the decision on third party
stocking, it’s a slim chance but we need to try.
Finally Peter Gough when
talking about the number of responses talked about the number of licences
salmon sold in Wales as being circa 2000 and NRW only received 112
responses. Whether this comment was trying to make a point on the
contribution anglers make via their licence fee or whether this was about the
fact that the majority of anglers don’t care we will never know, but this may
well be used at some point against us.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From the man himself, Head of EVIDENCE< KNOWLEDGE AND ADVICE. is someone joking.
Thank
you very much for taking the time to respond to our consultation on ‘NRW’s
salmon stocking, third party salmon stocking and the future of NRW’s
hatcheries’. I'm writing to you today so that I can update you of our Boards'
decision on the way forward.
As you know, last year we reviewed our approach to salmon stocking, and the associated hatchery operations. We considered a wide range of evidence, and concluded that this evidence clearly suggested that salmon stocking is not effective and could harm wild populations. We consulted on these findings and received 112 responses to the public consultation. While the majority of responses opposed our proposals, very little new evidence was provided.
NRW Executive Directors reviewed the consultation feedback, the evidence for change and NRW’s legal obligations. They concluded that, on the strength of the evidence, the recommendations of the review should stand - and that stocking of both salmon and sea trout should end without delay. Yesterday, the NRW Board ratified this decision.
In the short term, this policy change will mean that, where salmon and sea trout are currently held in NRW and 3rd party hatcheries, they will be used to complete the hatchery cycle and the fish will be stocked out before the end of 2015. The Mawddach and Maerdy hatcheries will close and any ongoing commitments will be transferred to Cynrig hatchery near Brecon. We will also be assessing the feasibility of developing a freshwater research centre at the Cynrig site.
As you know, last year we reviewed our approach to salmon stocking, and the associated hatchery operations. We considered a wide range of evidence, and concluded that this evidence clearly suggested that salmon stocking is not effective and could harm wild populations. We consulted on these findings and received 112 responses to the public consultation. While the majority of responses opposed our proposals, very little new evidence was provided.
NRW Executive Directors reviewed the consultation feedback, the evidence for change and NRW’s legal obligations. They concluded that, on the strength of the evidence, the recommendations of the review should stand - and that stocking of both salmon and sea trout should end without delay. Yesterday, the NRW Board ratified this decision.
In the short term, this policy change will mean that, where salmon and sea trout are currently held in NRW and 3rd party hatcheries, they will be used to complete the hatchery cycle and the fish will be stocked out before the end of 2015. The Mawddach and Maerdy hatcheries will close and any ongoing commitments will be transferred to Cynrig hatchery near Brecon. We will also be assessing the feasibility of developing a freshwater research centre at the Cynrig site.
We
recognise that some people will not agree with this decision but we strongly
believe that this is the best course of action to secure the future of wild
salmon and angling in Wales. We will now make time to meet with those affected
by this decision to agree alternative ways to ensure that Wales’ rivers have
healthy and thriving salmon populations.
Michael Evans
Head of Evidence, Knowledge and Advice
Natural Resources Wales
Head of Evidence, Knowledge and Advice
Natural Resources Wales
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