TAKING THE LEAD.
.is what anglers should be doing on a variety of issues. All too often however anglers have been the ones who have had to accept what others have decided. But now that we have our single organisation, the Angling Trust, to represent us, all this is gradually beginning to change.
The Angling Trust has now taken the lead in forming a coalition of organisations demanding that the control of cormorant numbers be made much more streamlined.
The cormorant problem is one issue which is not going to go away in a hurry. There are too many organisations with an axe to grind, and not just sporting ones. The RSPB has been adamant in its protective attitude. Many anglers have been calling for ‘executive action’ with respect to these fish-eating birds for some time now. And while this conflict of interests has been growing, so has the number of cormorants. From an estimated total of 2,000 cormorants and goosanders in the early 1980’s, we now have a UK cormorant population of some 25,000. Given that each individual bird will eat an estimated one pound of fish per day, the impact on freshwater fish stocks is bound to be immense.
As anglers, it is as well to remind ourselves of our position on this issue. I have no difficulty putting across the angler’s point of view when I meet bird lovers, and hope that anyone who reads this now will be able to do so as well.
Of course bird-lovers – or at least the more high-profile and vociferous ones – claim that anglers have brought the cormorant problem on themselves by stocking lakes and rivers with fish, thus attracting cormorants. I can only suppose from this that if we did not stock, they would complain that there was no prey to attract their beloved birds. Many of the bird-lovers do not in fact seem to appreciate the predator-prey relationship. The simple fact that the presence of cormorants depends on the presence of fish seems to escape them entirely: no fish, no birds – as simple as that. I actually think that the root problem is not the presence of fish in fresh waters, but the absence of prey fish in the sea. Cormorants have moved inland, just as scavenging gulls have moved from the seashore for richer pickings inland. And foxes have migrated to the town as there are so many more urban dustbins than there used to be.
And the fact is that cormorant numbers have become excessive. There is a neat, familiar term to describe this: they have become a pest. One bird-lover I came across recently claimed that in his wish to protect cormorants at all costs he was not anti-fish, just pro-bird. Unfortunately this type of one-sided attitude makes no sense. Where one predatory species is present in excessive numbers, others are forced out. Hence the presence of so many cormorants can only mean, apart from the severe reduction of fish populations, that the numbers of kingfishers and herons (fish-eating species I really love, by the way) will decline. There is simply not enough for them all to feast on; and even if there were, there would not be for very long. Given that large numbers of cormorants have migrated to the UK in recent years directly from freshwater in northern mainland Europe, I think it is high time we exercised a bit of proper predator management and control. So it is also time we anglers stood up and were counted.
Now, with the latest news from the Angling Trust about their joint statement (see link below) I think we might just see significant change in the legal position with regard to keeping cormorant numbers down later this year.
The current application process to shoot cormorants is a lengthy and expensive one. And at the end of it, only a fraction of the birds which are damaging fisheries, and with them the ‘angling economy’, can be shot. But now we can look forward to a brighter future.
Already, 60% of UK rivers do not meet the requirements of the EU Water Framework Directive mainly as a result of low fish stocks. If the cormorant population is not properly reduced, this situation can only get worse. The Angling Trust’s ‘Cormorant Watch’ website has recorded over 70,000 sightings.
Quite what shape the future will take is not certain of course. But I think change is in the offing: we have weight of evidence, reasonable arguments and – possibly most importantly – support from fellow sportsmen to back up the case.
Defra is due to review the fish-eating bird situation shortly, so we anglers are now armed with facts and figures to influence government. This is what politics is about. And politics is also about getting others to join you in presenting the case – which is precisely what the Angling Trust has succeeded in doing. So now anglers head a coalition which includes the Angling Trades Association, the British Association for Shooting and Conservation, the Countryside Alliance, the Salmon and Trout Association and the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust. The coalition is calling for cormorants and goosanders to be added to the ‘General Licence’. This would pave the way for a national management plan and would make it much easier to keep the numbers down and virtually eliminate red tape. It would also bring us into line with our continental neighbours. France has such a predator control strategy already in place.
I am aware that many of you will complain that all this is all very belated action on the cormorant issue. There may be an element of truth in this. But the Angling Trust can only do what is within its means. Most anglers – and that includes some very keen, competent and well-informed ones of my own acquaintance – are still not members of the Trust. They see the writing on the wall for fishing; they understand perfectly well that anglers need to act together to save and protect their sport. But somehow they never get round to joining. This of course solves nothing.
As a result, the Trust is as a result working with a very limited budget at a political level in effect on your behalf – whether you are a member or not. And on this particular issue it has taken the lead and united fellow field-sportsmen over a single issue – a considerable achievement, in fact. So it deserves your support. And then perhaps in the future, with your support, we can look forward to joint action on other burning issues.
So do what needs to be done, and do it now. Join the Angling Trust.
You can join the Angling Trust online at: www.anglingtrust.net or by calling 0444 77 00 616 (Select Option 1. Calls cost no more than 5p per minute.) To read the Angling Trust’s joint statement urging the Governments of England and Wales to set out a national management plan to reduce the impact of cormorants and goosanders to protect fish stocks, go to: http://bit.ly/PrL33n
