Another small lift in the upper river following last nights rain which may perk up a few residents and move them around a little though to get fish from the bottom of the river to the upper beats is asking a bit much on current flows.

2 10lb fish reported recently from Seven Sisters and a 14lb fish perked up enough to be caught yesterday at the Rectory by Hugh Dickinson




POSSIBLITY OF UDN ON THE WYE.  SEE BELOW ACTION TAKEN SO FAR BY STEVE ROBERTS.

Lets hope it turns out not to be UDN as there are other causes of fungus and diseased salmon and indeed dead ones.  lets hope any result prove negative. Doubt WUF will even mention it!
Message from Steve Roberts.

Circulation :

Wye Salmon Association, Stuart Smith

River Wye Gillies Association, Geoff Franks

Wye and Usk Foundation, Tony Norman

Local Fisheries Group,Chairman, David Revill

Salmon and Trout Association, Chairman, R. Bronks

Angling Trust, Chief Executive, Mark Lloyd

Angling Trust, Campaigns Co-ordinator, Martin Salter

Trout and Salmon, Editor, Andrew Flitcroft

Fly Fishing & Fly Tying, Editor, Mark Bowler

North Atlantic Salmon Fund, Chairman, Orri Vigfusson

Richard Benyon, MP

George Eustice, MP / DEFRA

BBC Countryfile, Editor, Fergus Collins

Fishery Owner, John Pearson

Environment Agency, Chris Bainger

Environment Agency, Stuart Gamble

Natural Resources Wales, Peter Gough

Dear all,

This statement is intended to confirm the facts concerning the diseased salmon I encountered whilst fishing the River Wye and the Environment Agency's response.

On Thursday 30 April 2015 I saw a salmon in the margin of the beat I was fishing near Symonds Yat. The fish was clearly diseased and distressed as it was liberally discolored with white patches, especially on the head, and other irregular marks. The dorsal fin was above the water and the fish was swimming weakly, being driven downstream by the gentle marginal flow. Water conditions were low and clear, and I photographed the fish in the water as it was driven downstream past me in the marginal flow.

I walked downstream to where my landing net was and waded out to attempt to intercept the ailing fish. However a large group of canoes came downstream at the same time and, despite receiving help from two of them, lost sight of the salmon amid the heavy canoe traffic.

Later I walked downstream and saw, again in the margin, the diseased fish some 300 yards below where sight of it was lost. Its dorsal fin was still above the surface and it was still being driven backwards in the gentle marginal flow. I waded out and carefully netted the fish. It gave very little reaction to being netted.

The fish stank from its rotting flesh and was clearly extremely sick. The head was completely raw, open sores were distributed about its length, and the fins, especially the tail fin, were split and largely missing through rot. I administered the coup de grace, photographed it in detail for the record and carried it in the net to the shade of some trees away from the riverbank. I disinfected my hands with a wipe from a first aid kit.

A gamekeeper happened by and, having seen UDN before, he surmised that it looked like that disease. I phoned the Emergency Hotline number on my EA rod licence and the operator took full details. I asked that the fish be collected by EA staff for analysis.

During the afternoon I liaised with two EA staff. The first, Bill Burleigh, explained he could neither attend, nor could he find a colleague to, as he "just didn't have the staff" and wasn't allowed to attend as he had "just come off a night shift". Mr. Burleigh asked me if I could take the fish back to my B&B and put it on ice for collection the next day? I could not comply with that very inappropriate request.

At about 6pm the Environment Officer Dougal Ziegler arrived. He explained he was not from the Fisheries Department as no one was available, but that he was from Water Quality, and would take the fish and arrange for it to be analysed in the EA labs in Cambridge. He photographed the fish with my tape measure alongside (34" = 17lb Sturdy scale, see attached photograph when netted and dispatched), put it in a plastic bag and then the boot of his car. No ice was used.

I asked the collecting officer to make a note for the analysis of the fish to look for any hook marks in the mouth to see if the fish had been caught and released perhaps. Before he left I had to ask about disinfecting my net as I had not been advised to by the collecting EA officer.

On Saturday 2 May I received from the Wye Salmon Association (I am a member) an information sheet about UDN, and a note regarding infected fish, both originating from the EA :

Gentlemen

As influential men of the salmon fisheries of both the Severn and Wye could you please spread the word of the attached document and share.

But most importantly can you please get a clear message out, that we DO NOT want fish killed that may be suspected of UDN or other skin conditions.

The clear message from the Environment Agency at Local Area- all fish should returned alive- no matter what the condition, or returned even if dead and notify the Agency.

Please also make it clear that removing salmon with a hand net e.g. it spotted dead or dying in the margins, is unlawful and could result in enforcement proceedings.

Please encourage folks to notify the EA on the Emergency Hotline Number0800 80 70 60,  if they suspect fish that are unwell or distressed in anyway.

DO NOT REMOVE OR KILL SALMON SUSPECTED OF UDN or OTHER SKIN CONDITIONS, CONTACT THE ENVIRONMENT AGENCY

Chris Bainger MIFM Cenv

Fisheries Technical Specialist

My response, sent to both Mr Bainger and the Wye Salmon Association (Stuart Smith), was as follows :

Dear Mr Bainger,

Steve Roberts

Rod Licence 305380067

Incident ref. with Mr. Ziegler

I am the reporter of the fish from the Wye suspected of having UDN, and am writing in response to the email you have sent out below.

The advice you give completely contradicts that which was confirmed by the three EA staff I dealt with on the day, namely your Emergency Hotline operator, Bill Burnley who liaised regarding the collection of the fish for analysis at the Cambridge EA labs (who had a hard job as "we just don't have the staff"), and Dougal Ziegler collecting Environmental Officer. All three of these EA staff told me that I had done "exactly the right thing", and were very grateful for my "prompt action" : I netted a clearly distressed and severely diseased fish out of a salmon river whose severely depleted population certainly does not need any further hindrance to its survival, put it out of its very obvious misery, and called the EA number on my licence. When the owners of the fishery arrived they also told me very clearly in discussions with your collecting officer that I had done "exactly the right thing".

Your proposed advice clearly contradicts the responses I received from your fellow EA staff. Further, to advise that fish killed by disease are returned to, or left in, the water is ridiculous madness. To return to, or leave in, the water a clearly diseased fish "no matter what the condition" ie. even dead, is absurd and very irresponsible advice. Please go into an aquarist and see what response you get to your suggestion.

That fish stank of decay, and it was alive, just. That pathogen needed to be removed from the river and away from other salmon it would infect.

So, have I, in fact, acted in an "unlawful" way, and are my actions to result in "enforcement proceedings" by the EA as you threat?

Further, are you going to enlist the assistance of all salmon anglers and gillies on the Wye to help you eradicate any further carriers of this disease (they will do as I did - the sensible thing), or are you going to continue to advise them to promote the pathogen that rotted that fish alive? You might appear in a better light should you decide to re-write your advice.

Regards, Steve Roberts

The Wye Salmon Association supported my response to Mr. Bainger as follows :

WSA member Steve Roberts seems to have some very valid concerns over the conflicting advice he received in dealing with this incident and the instructions in your recent email.  Personally I think the actions taken by Steve and the advice he received from local EA staff, in removing the diseased fish and pathogens contained from the river, appear sensible. However I think you need to revisit this issue and whatever your conclusion you need to communicate it clearly to ALL parties.

I look forward to your responses.

I have copied to Peter Gough [NRW] and Stuart Gamble [EA] as our senior fisheries contacts, David Revill in his capacity as LFG Chairman and Tony Norman at WUF who along with myself has been endeavouring to improve efficacy and use of the emergency hotline.

The response I received from Mr Bainger was as follows :

Steve, I will keep this brief for the moment and will be in touch fully when I am back from leave.

By no means was the email advice a criticism of your actions, we are in fact very grateful that you brought this to our attention. The reason for our advice is clear we wish to protect people from the wrong side of the law. I issued the advice after recommendations from the enforcement team experts Bill Burleigh and Al Watson. 

Interestingly the fact sheet was issued to me by national the day before your report.

Hopefully you understand our position. I very happy to come out and discuss with all the groups involved how best we deal with this.

Once again apologies if you felt that the informative email singled you out as doing something wrong it was not intended that way.

Regards, Chris Bainger

Clearly there is gross contradiction with the advice that the EA gave me during the incident (Mr. Burleigh asked me to take the rot stinking salmon I had netted from the river and killed to my B&B) and the advice the EA gave the WSA for distribution after the incident (Mr. Burleigh's expert recommendation that infected salmon must be left in, or returned to, the water, even if dead).

To compound the EA's contradictions I was told by Mr. Burleigh during the incident that I had done "the right thing", yet the EA advice distributed (originating from Mr. Burleigh) states that I had carried out an unlawful act that was subject to prosecution.

The Environment Agency is widely criticized for the way it manages factors affecting the salmon of the river Wye - uncontrolled predation by large numbers of cormorants and gooseanders, uncontrolled heavy canoe traffic without any regulation via licensing, widespread abstraction at times of low summer flow, no fish counter data, and with NRW the closing down of the indiginous regeneration programme it once supported (Wye Salmon Association's hatchery using native breeding stock) etc. Should UDN be confirmed in the remaining Wye salmon population is the Environment Agency equipped with enough appropriately knowledgeable and capable staff to protect it? The confused response to the potential case I reported suggests it is not.

Steve Roberts

West Berk