The Anglers’ Conservation Association (ACA) and the Salmon & Trout Association (S&TA) have read with deep concern the report launched today by the Sustainable Development Commission, Turning the Tide, which assesses the potential for tidal power to generate electricity in some of the UK’s most important estuaries, including the Severn.
The proposed Severn Barrage would have a serious impact on fish within the River Severn estuary, especially migratory species such as Atlantic salmon, sea trout, shad, lampreys and eels, all of which are protected by European legislation. Salmon in particular could become non viable in the rivers Severn, Wye and Usk.
Most alarmingly, it is the potential for turbines to kill high numbers of outwardly migrating juveniles that poses the greatest threat. The estuary is also important for marine species such as bass, mullet, pollock, sole, flounders and sprat, all of which would be impeded by the physical barrier and inevitable change in environmental quality within the estuary associated with building a barrage.
The document makes clear that there would be a legal requirement to compensate any damage to habitats. It suggests: “habitat compensation could include the creation of new habitat, the restoration of existing habitat, or the recreation of habitats within the site, in other designated sites, or in non-designated sites (and then designating them). To compensate for impacts on fish, compensation could involve the artificial restocking of certain fish species to maintain overall numbers.â€
It is clear that recreating three of the largest rivers in the UK is preposterous, and that restocking of migratory fish in these rivers would be pointless as they would be killed either on their way to sea or on their return. Salmon populations from particular rivers are genetically unique and therefore cannot be replaced elsewhere.
The SDC notes that: “The practicality and cost of this requirement represents the final test of the overall viability of the proposal.†The S&TA and ACA can only conclude that this test makes a tidal barrage in the Severn non-viable.
S&TA Executive Director, Paul Knight, said, “migratory fish, especially salmon and sea trout, have a very high socio-economic importance in the area, while salmon, shad and lampreys are all designated species under the EU Habitats Directive and eels are now officially classified as an endangered species. Any structure which impeded their migration would have a catastrophic effect on the world-renowned rivers Usk, Wye and Severn, and there is no way of recreating these fish populations elsewhere as compensation.â€
ACA Executive Director, Mark Lloyd, commented, “whilst we appreciate the very urgent need to address climate change, we do not believe that a barrage in the Severn or any other estuary is a sustainable solution. The damage to the environment from tidal barrages – ranging from the materials used in construction to the disruption of complex flows of sediment in estuaries – is unacceptable and probably illegal. We would much rather see comprehensive schemes to reduce energy demand coupled with the development of relatively benign tidal stream technologies which could be developed around new marine reserves. That strategy would qualify as sustainable development.â€
