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This is a dedicated thread for discussing article: Fish Re-stocking for Thames West Region
Fish Re-stocking for Thames West Region
- Thread starter FishingMagic
- Start date
Alan Tyler
Well-known member
While I'm glad that there is a fish farm to replenish stocks after a pollution, I can't help thinking that this is a bone we are being thrown to keep us quiet about the long-term degradation of our aquatic - riverine, in particular - environments by abstraction, eutrophication and "drainage engineering" (or whatevever the buzzword is now) to remove all water as quickly as possible to protect (why bother?) the dungbrains who buy houses (which ought to be uninsurable) built on flood-plains by greedy fly-by-night developers.
Where, may I ask, are they farming the water-plants, the Gammarus and hoglice, the may-, caddis- and stone-fly larvae necessary not only to re-stock their own kind, but to feed the fish that are been stocked almost cosmetically?
They aren't? Then what are the fish going to eat?
Then there's shelter, fish passes and spawning beds...
Where, may I ask, are they farming the water-plants, the Gammarus and hoglice, the may-, caddis- and stone-fly larvae necessary not only to re-stock their own kind, but to feed the fish that are been stocked almost cosmetically?
They aren't? Then what are the fish going to eat?
Then there's shelter, fish passes and spawning beds...
geoffmaynard
Content Editor
They don't quite have to photo-op appeal of a cute little otter Alan. So expect more otters and less stone-fly
Alan Tyler
Well-known member
Otters gotta eat, too - stocked fish won't sustain an otter once they've twigged that there's no food, and have cleared off to pastures new. Expect famished otters and no stonefly, then a mad flap about dead rivers, then a collective shrug form the powers that be...
On the short term-ist bright side, many of the stocked fish are likely to go prospecting downstream - the "Tidal" must be getting pretty full by now?
On the short term-ist bright side, many of the stocked fish are likely to go prospecting downstream - the "Tidal" must be getting pretty full by now?
geoffmaynard
Content Editor
Misinformation from the media will never allow the river to recover. I just watched a bloke on Matthew Wright's 'Inside Out' on BBC1 pointing to fish in the London Aquarium and saying that these are a sample of the beautiful fish which inhabit the Thames. "This beautiful rudd, and this gorgeous grayling" 
Tee-Cee
Senior Member
Whilst I understand the sentiments offered above I suggest we need to be a little more positive around this....
No, its not an ideal situation but fish are being put back into our waters and IMHO thats more important than where they come from. Whenever we have pollution insect and plant life will take time to recover, probably many years, BUT it will recover and, I suggest, far quicker than we expect!
For me this is a good sign for the future and and, on the face of it, I think we are ALL happy about it.........Nature will take care of the other stuff and insect/plant life will be back PDQ!!
(My garden pond is full of insects, plants, frogs that arrived naturally in only a year from being dug so i don't think the Thames will have a problem.................
Signal crayfish...........now thats what I call a problem!!
No, its not an ideal situation but fish are being put back into our waters and IMHO thats more important than where they come from. Whenever we have pollution insect and plant life will take time to recover, probably many years, BUT it will recover and, I suggest, far quicker than we expect!
For me this is a good sign for the future and and, on the face of it, I think we are ALL happy about it.........Nature will take care of the other stuff and insect/plant life will be back PDQ!!
(My garden pond is full of insects, plants, frogs that arrived naturally in only a year from being dug so i don't think the Thames will have a problem.................
Signal crayfish...........now thats what I call a problem!!
geoffmaynard
Content Editor
It's true I'm not positive about it but with good reason. I'm 61 now TeeCee and I've been waiting for this 'recovery' most of my life. All I see, every year, is further decline - yet all I hear from 'authorities' is how much things have improved blah blah. Hot air and tokenism is all we ever get. I look at the images in this article and shake my head in disbelief - 250 minnow sized silver fish per species is supposed to repopulate the Thames West region? One cormorant could wolf down the lot in a couple of days.
jasonbean1
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the club i'm a member of are benefiting from these stockings, over the last 2 years 1600 juvenile barbel have been stocked into the cherwell at thrupp along with dace, roach and chub...... along with habitat works that have been carried out so far are 2 x back waters created and 30 tons of gravel creating a new clean riffle which chub got straight onto a and spawned in the 1st year and a fish pass is being built below thrupp(at this moment) at Gosford weir to remove the impounding which as definitely help reduce the barbel populations down to next to nothing on the cherwell. this winter a major project to restore a stretch that was straightened and widened will get underway, the work will carried out by the wild trout trust(on behalf of the EA) and will be backed by the barbel society.
Over the next few years I beleive the EA fisheries team will hopefully be carrying out more habitat works on this short stretch of river and it can only help...I for one feel that th EA fisheries team do an excellent job in a very poor situation that there bosses and the government leave them to deal with.
Our club as engaged with the EA in a positive manner and we are greatful for the time and work...anglrers in our club that used to knock them are now realising they are all we have and it's best to make good use of them
And by the way the stocked barbel have surprisingly been showing up..... albeit still very small!
Cheers
Jason
Over the next few years I beleive the EA fisheries team will hopefully be carrying out more habitat works on this short stretch of river and it can only help...I for one feel that th EA fisheries team do an excellent job in a very poor situation that there bosses and the government leave them to deal with.
Our club as engaged with the EA in a positive manner and we are greatful for the time and work...anglrers in our club that used to knock them are now realising they are all we have and it's best to make good use of them
And by the way the stocked barbel have surprisingly been showing up..... albeit still very small!
Cheers
Jason
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Well said, Jason; it's not all doom and gloom, though Anglers as a breed seem to prefer the doomsday scenario. I am old enough to remember the days when the West London, Middlesex, Bucks and Berks anglers who taught me a lot of my coarse fishing when I was a kid waxed (albeit infrequently and mercifully briefly) gloomy about, let's say, the barbel of our local Thames ("a fraction of what they were before and just after the war..."), of its tributary the Colne ("pretty well all gone now ... the river's filthy - almost dead ... you've seen it, Paul ... we have to go to the Kennet now"). Then there were the Grand Union Canal and the tench pits they once had such catches from...
Tee-Cee
Senior Member
Its our sport but as a body we do very little...When was the last time you saw anglers marching on Downing Street to demand a better deal? Look how many anglers fail to support the only body (ATr) working for our sport in an attempt to put things right or those who try to collect the necessary signatures for a petition?
Is it not the case that should someone suggest anglers putting hand to pocket for cash to improve stocks we, as a body would run for cover....I would support and gladly pay an extra fiver on my licence if all that money was to be earmarked for restocking etc. I can hear the cry now "I'm not paying more,its too bloody expensive as it is!"
Money is not going to be available (if it ever was) from the Government any time soon so WE,as a body have to do more..........................That includes me!
Is it not the case that should someone suggest anglers putting hand to pocket for cash to improve stocks we, as a body would run for cover....I would support and gladly pay an extra fiver on my licence if all that money was to be earmarked for restocking etc. I can hear the cry now "I'm not paying more,its too bloody expensive as it is!"
Money is not going to be available (if it ever was) from the Government any time soon so WE,as a body have to do more..........................That includes me!