On BBC Radio 4s Home Planet Programme today, the presenter Richard Daniels made a comment whilst the programme and panel were discussing Herons, their predator status and past persecution, that these birds “were not the anglers best friends.” The subtle implication of this statement was that, anglers are still persecuting them.

As any angler of many years standing knows, this has not been the case for over 40 years or more. The SAA has had no reports whatsoever of these birds causing any problems anywhere in the country. Nor have we heard of any being culled by anglers legally or illegally, again anywhere in the country. The EA has never raise in any of the meetings the SAA has had with them, any concerns about anglers persecuting these birds, nor has the SAA it raised any concerns about any problems regarding fish losses to them. On the contrary, we have pointed out that the loss of silver fish to cormorants in our view, will impact on the numbers of other fish-eating bird species including herons, kingfishes, etc.

On the Panel was also Baroness Barber Young the Head Of the Environment Agency, whose comment to persecution of these birds was “you here less of it these days.” This is somewhat disconcerting coming from the Head of the EA. Not what you would call an outright rejection of persecution by anglers on her part, by any stretch of the imagination. .

Given the above facts, I on behalf of the SAA would pose the following question to both the presenter and Baroness Young
“What evidence do you have that anglers are in recent times still persecuting herons?”

To Baroness Young
And why, if you have any such evidence has the EA never raised the issue as a concern at any of the meetings with the SAA, or any other National Angling body?

On behalf of the SAA and angling, I would ask you to register your protest to the BBC and Baroness Young by e-mailing the programme voicing you concerns about these comments at home.planet@bbc.co.uk

For those wishing to make a protest by phone, the contact number is 08700 100 222

To listen to the comments online go to the R4 web site at Home Planet at 11 minutes into it programme on RealPlayer. For those that don’t have RealPlayer, it can be downloaded for free from the BBC.

I’d urge ALL reading this to register a protest.

Phil Hackett
Conservation Officer SAA

I have sent one.

if herons had been any good at eating fish then they would have eaten them all millions of years before man appeared .
herons and kingfishers ,grebes and diving ducks show all is well in a fishery and add rather detract in an anglers world.
our black friends the Corms on the other hand have no friends within the angling community as they are alien to most ponds .
i am suprised that many people still cannot tell the difference between corms and herons and responding to a call that 2 cormorants were scoffing all the fish on arriving found 2 herons patiently waiting for their prey to come close maybe could account for a small percentage being shot but herons are good guys in my eyes.

This is absolutely spot on, and exactly what we should be doing everytime the media puts out it's misinformation - calculated or not - my email is on it's way.

You can listen to the programme here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/science/rams/h.../homeplanet.ram

Tight Lines - leon

whats a SAA :confused:

I don't know guys. Seen all this happen with the shooting business. The BBC say what they like and then basically ignore whatever people say to try and set the record straight. I heard of one anti hunt campaigner basically saying that now the hunting issue was dealt with shooting and fishing is next on the "list". I fear that battle is soon to commence in earnest. It starts with these seemingly innocent stories and then begins to escalate.

Response already gone.
I always thought that Barbara Young should not be fronting the EA. All well and good at garden parties in frilly frocks, but what is needed is for someone to kick a few backsides to get the EA to do what it's supposed to do.Sounds like she is more of an apologist for the EA than anything else.
I have never thought of herons as being a threat to fisheries.
I have attended many meetings with the NRA/EA and I have never heard the issue of herons causing damage to fisheries raised once.

[ 13. October 2004, 09:29 AM: Message edited by: wearyone ]

As an add on to the above post You might like to contact the programme call FEEDBACK on R4. This programme is the complaints on air programme.

The more complaints they get the more likely they will cover someones e-mail on air.

Do you have an email address?