Genesis Part II – Is Man the New God?“And on the eighth day man sent God on holiday and in his absence, for (His own) amusement and profit, man created fish in his own likeness: fat, stupid, greedy and riddled with disease.” Genesis part II 1:1. We cannot help but play the role of God when it comes down to the species of flora and fauna that inhabit this world and it is a dangerous game that we play. Not satisfied with what we have we always seem to be striving for that extra little something.
The world is an amazing place, full of beauty, and we as the anglers of the British Isles especially should count ourselves lucky that we have such a wonderfully rich, natural heritage that we as its occupants can be quite rightly proud of and enjoy. From the deep cold northern lakes which were scoured out by the last ice age, full of strange and endangered species such as Char and Pollen to the powerful rivers such as the Severn, Thames and Trent. We have many species of fish that cater for the wide church that is ‘angling’. Old men dressed in somber tweeds can cast a fly onto the nose of a fresh run salmon and pay a small fortune to do so; young children dressed in football kits can dangle a broken worm into a stream or park pond and catch a procession of small perch for next to nothing. Angling is a unique sport in so much as it has the ability to be everything to every man. And you may wonder where I am going with this train of thought. It was once said by a wise man that if he were to die and find himself in a small and pretty cottage with a perfect chalk stream running at its boundary and every cast he made, regardless of bait, he caught a double figure Brown trout he would instantly know that he had not lived his life as a good Christian because that would surely be hell that he was occupying. Do we really want to catch a double figure fish with every cast? Do we want every cast to catch another fish identical to the last, the next fish the same as the first and so on and so on ad infintum? I certainly do not, because it really would be hell. I would soon tire of the brainless monotonous drudgery that would be masquerading as the sport I love. Fishing, for me and it seems many others like myself, is more than just about catching fish. Yes, you read that right, it isn’t all about catching fish; there are times when the catching of fish is simply a bonus. “Seeing the wickedness of man’s plans God put down his Martini and from his holiday home in the Maldives sent forth one of his angels with a full keg of whup-ass.” Why do I fish then if it is not to catch fish? I do fish to catch fish and that is my problem, I do not as a rule fish to catch something that is soiled. My fish, fish that I target, were not made by man; they have a genealogy that stretches back millions of years, a pure gene pool perfected product. That is why I find myself taking issue with the plans to flood the country’s fisheries with a new strain of carp called the F2. Not satisfied with the F1, which is a pastie-sized carp much prized for its ability to withstand repeated capture. Their creator Simon Hughes of Riverfield fish farm in Kent has developed an all female sterile strain of carp that is capable of reaching 10lb in two years. Is this the way forward? For what my opinion is worth I would have to say not, this has the potential to be a catastrophic genetic and ecological biological time bomb. A time bomb that is being fuelled by the lucrative market in waters that are capable of producing ever larger match weights and ever larger specimens. We anglers seem to be shackled with individuals whose main – and sometimes only – consideration is profit. The F2 strain of KHV resistant triploid carp may on the outside look to be a fantastic breakthrough, guaranteeing the commercial match, specimen and pleasure fisherman the opportunity to consistently ‘bag-up’ on fast growing, hard fighting, all female, carp. But as our natural waterways continue to be placed under ever increasing pressure from the needs of our rising population it will be to these stillwaters that we will need to look to in the not so distant future as the last bastions and safeguards of our sport. The F2 variety of fish will unfairly compete with the indigenous fish of our waterways, placing unwanted and unnecessary pressure on the bio-diversity of our fisheries before they die of old age. They will then have to be re-stocked, perpetuating a vicious circle of artificial stocking levels and non-sustainable and genetically corrupted fish. The EA should seek new legislation to promote the stocking of only genetically sound indigenous fish species such as roach, rudd, crucian carp and so forth. There is no room for oddities such as F1’s, F2’s, brown Goldfish and exotics such as wels catfish, sterlets and sturgeon. “And out of the pool came floating a pale fish, his name was Death and all Hell followed closely behind him.” Revelations part II. So rather than being a win-win new Genesis of the match and specialist angling scene whereby anglers are faced with the challenge of catching ever larger and more varied species, we could be facing fishery wipe outs of biblical proportions; something more akin to the apocalypse than fishing heaven. The only winners I can see in this situation are the people who own the fish farms. They will reap the financial benefits of repeated stocking regimes. I would implore the fishery owners to look at applying pressure onto the fish farmers with support from the press to try and alter the current situation we are now facing whereby we lose our bio-diversity and genetic validity before it is too late. Am I alone in having these fears? It would seem not! Here are some of the opinions of my fishing friends from the length a breadth of the country. They are in no doubts that this plan is flawed and leaves all of angling open to unwarranted and unnecessary dangers. Ruth Lockwood Phil Smith Andy Nellist Mark Wintle Baz Fleming Phil Hackett Andy Renton DVSG Michael Townsend DVSG Tim Ridge DVSG |
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