FRESHWATER THREATS - 2013

There’s a toxic concoction of threats out there and at risk of putting a dampener on your end of season fishing, the reality in the world of wildlife is alarming. We live at a time of unprecedented declines in many species of freshwater wildlife and unless we all work together to reverse the declines, it ain’t going to get better any time soon. The list makes depressing reading.

seriously cute - c. Stewart Canham

- Water voles down by 90% - the fastest declining mammal in Britain.

European eel - maybe 20yrs. old

- Freshwater eels down by 95%

- White-clawed crayfish facing extinction.

like a little jewel c. Sarah Williams

Royalty grilse - one of the few survivors

Hen salmon heading for their redds

- Southern salmon threatened by global warming.

- Many river species in decline, especially roach.

Hampshire Avon roach at Britford

The list goes on and sometimes I feel powerless to do anything to help … but I try, not just by making conservation films but by supporting the Angling Trust, the Salmon and Trout Assoc. the Dorset Wildlife Trust, the British Trust for Ornithology and the RSPB. They don’t always say what I think they should! but at least I have a voice through them and access to the facts to carry the protection of our beleaguered freshwater habitats forward.

  The Avon at Downton - roach heaven - in the good old days!

a fish's last look c. David Kjaer

The good news is that nature, given half a chance, has wonderful powers of recovery. The bittern is a classic example. Extinct in the UK in 1886, recovered to only  eleven booming males by1997, the creation of habitat by the RSPB and other conservation organisations has seen them increase to a present population of seventy five breeding pairs ; a brilliant result. If we anglers did more to create habitat for fish they might well recover too and it won't be just bitterns that are grateful.

If every conservation organisation worked together to create a healthier freshwater environment then we would all be a lot better off - our wildlife too. And if each of us joined at least one of the Trusts we might influence the government to change things for the better. I know times are hard financially but joining the Angling Trust is not expensive and we sure need them to fight our corner.

another perch down the hatch c. Steve Allen

The excessive predation by cormorants is just one issue and it’s reaching the crucial stage when decisions will be made by the government on future licensing controls  – or not – so please read the attached and support the work of the Trust in protecting our threatened fish.

Cormorants - Dossier of Destruction

http://www.anglingtrust.net/news.asp?section=29&itemid=1507

NATURE ON YOUR DOORSTEP

          

Friends for many years, Simon King and I have shared the thrill of living in Shetland with our respective families while filming otters for the BBC. We both wrote books about the experience, having grown to love the place and it’s people, the otters too.

Simon is not ‘just’ the presenting star that we are familiar with on ‘Springwatch’ but a brilliant cameraman and film maker. He has helped me out with my films several times in the past with tricky sequences like hobbies hunting dragonflies – with predictably splendid results. So when he asked me to make a little film for him celebrating the local otters return to Dorset, a far cry from Shetland, then I was pleased to oblige, particularly as it was for a Wildfowl and Wetland Trust weekend he was hosting in London. The WWT is one of my favourite charities as I’m passionate about wild geese and the wonderfully remote places they live.

Wildest Shetland 

John Busby's lovely illustrations

a far cry from Dorset

'My' otters two cubs

She trusted me

Simon had hoped to join me so that I could film him with the otters but he’s so busy we weren’t able to make it happen. It would have been ‘harmonic convergence’, for when he was a schoolboy he joined me for a week or three when making a film for his dad John and the BBC on the New Forest. I was trying to teach Simon a few basics of the film making business. Maybe I succeeded for the rest, as they say, is history. The boy done good!

Anyway, the attached film is a brief celebration of the return of the otter, one of wildlife conservations greatest success stories. They were almost extinct in southern England, restricted to just a few rivers in Devon and Cornwall, Northern England and Wales but legal protection and more importantly, the banning of the pesticide poisoning of our  countryside allowed them to recover. It just goes to show how, given the chance, nature will bounce back.

Their return has created several issues in the freshwater world but I’ll be going into that in detail in future posts. In the meantime, enjoy the otters on you doorstep while you can. They are wonderful animals.

Dorset Otters by friend Stewart Canham