Source: Angling Trust
The Angling Trust’s Regions Co-ordinator John Cheyne and members of the Worcester & District United Anglers Association came up with a creative solution to help solve an extreme litter problem on the Worcester Birmingham canal last weekend.
Recent storms had blown huge amounts of rubbish into the canal in the centre of Worcester and not only was this causing an eyesore on one of the club’s favourite match stretches, but it was also likely to impact nesting birds in a number of key reed beds.
The problem the group had with removing the litter was the difficulty in getting to it from either the towpath or the land on the far side of the canal. Literally hundreds of plastic bottles, beer cans, footballs and all sorts of other floating debris were trapped and inaccessible from dry land. Luckily John is a keen kayak angler and launched his craft on the canal to access the areas that litter pickers on foot couldn’t get near.
After a few hours hard work John had filled nearly twenty refuse bags of floating litter while the team on the towpath dredged for larger items and managed to pull out seven bikes, two shopping trolleys and an industrial loading truck, all this in just a few hundred yards of canal!
Ray Ravanell the Chairman of WDUAA was not surprised by what they found:
“Unfortunately this area of the canal is prone to litter and people dumping stolen bikes and trolleys. In a clean up a few years ago we even dredged up a safe! When John from the Angling Trust approached us about the current issue we were more than happy to help. This is a great stretch of canal with some fantastic catches of bream, perch, chub and roach along with the odd bonus carp and it’s also very popular with dog walkers, joggers and cyclists. Cleaning up this eyesore will not only improve the fishing and benefit nesting birds, but it will also brighten up the area for the whole community. We ALL need to work together now, to try to keep the area free of litter which unfortunately some people still think is fine to throw in the canal.”
The Angling Trust encourage all anglers and angling clubs to help keep waterways clean, so if you know of any area of canal, river or lake that is in need of litter picking and you’d like to organize a clean-up operation, get in touch with Regions Co-ordinator John Cheyne at John.cheyne@anglingtrust.net
