music to your ears?

[lutra]

http://www.anglingtimes.fishing/Angling-Times/Section/News--Catches/General-News/A-million-new-fish-to-be-stocked-into-venues-nationwide/

 

Big silly carp aside, why would it be music to my ears to hear that we are stocking shed loads of fish?

 

Think I would be much happier to hear we didn't need to stock any and all our waters are healthy and self sustaining.

[Latimeria]

lutra, on 03 Nov 2015 - 18:01, said:Big silly carp aside, why would it be music to my ears to hear that we are stocking shed loads of fish?

 

Think I would be much happier to hear we didn't need to stock any and all our waters are healthy and self sustaining.

 

It'll never happen now, too many people on the island, business too much in control, EA even more emasculated than they were.

We're paying to keep rivers stocked that have been screwed over by everyone else (and ourselves, we need to start with our own lifestyles before criticising others). Might be OK if the EA were actually doing any follow-up on the survival rates of these fish and looking at what age produces the best adaptation to the environments they're placed in, but they're not.

 

As for the carp, wasn't Simmonds the guy who was whining about being driven out of business by otters? Guess he realised that maybe he'd have to actually protect his thick farmed fish long enough to sell them to people wanting instant trophy shots.

 

Think being in work in this weather is making me grumpy...

[Steve Walker]

Interesting how different the modern attitude to stocking trout in rivers is to the attitude to piling in coarse fish.

 

Of course most of that stock they're talking about is carp and "silvers" to be chucked in puddles to maintain artificially easy fishing.

[barbelbarmy]

Always amazes me that they restock during this period. Take a lot of farmed fish, put into wild environment at a time of year when water is cooler, so fish, being cold blooded, are less able to fight off the diseases they are being introduced to. Next come the floods and then the migrating cormorants. Would be suprised if any see the next season. I have never caught a dye marked fish or have knowledge of them being reported.

 

EA have introduced fish over last few years in my local section of Trent and publicise it as a great work. They don't mention it is part of a program to replace fish killed due to their mismanagement of the filter beds on the river Anker and that the juvenile fish are to replace the mature, spawning age, ones killed. They also fail to mention their refusal to clear out a tree blocking an entrance to a side stream because it was good for fish to hide under. Now that back water that had many trees along its half mile length, and was always full of juvenile fish, is almost comletely dry. Another spawning ground is silted up due to the Balsum growing but they refuse to clear on the grounds that they have no where to put the mud! even though they have been bringing it in on trucks to make flood banks.

 

Now we have trees on a weir that if they come over in the floods will cause a lot of damage below. Will not remove due to natural change to the river, even when pointed out that they all have chain saw cuts!

 

 

Unfortunately I have no respect for the environment agency at all.

[Ken L]

"I have no respect for the environment agency at all"

 

+1

[Latimeria]

Lower metabolism means they're better able to live off stored lipid reserves as they adapt, lower temperatures mean they can be transported more densely and are less likely to be screwed over by the pollution slugs that can come after Summer storms, more reliable flow (in theory) means there's more water for them to disperse into, in Autummn/early Winter introduced fish are not competing with very small YOY fry, disease organisms are becoming quiescent, so the time of year makes sense for a number of reasons.

[barbelbarmy]

That's exactly the opposite to what I have been informed or read over the 35 years I have kept fish.

 

We have regular meetings with the EA and when I asked them they said it was due to when having the biggest stocks available at the right price.

[Steve Walker]

Keeping pet fish is a somewhat different situation, though - if they are tropical, you are going to want to keep the water temperature above UK ambient temperatures in any case, you are likely not transporting huge numbers of them together, and you may have inflated the bag with oxygen. The fish are adapted to warm water and the level of dissolved oxygen that supports. Even if they are coldwater fish, they will be going into a managed environment.

 

The main factor determining how many fish you can safely transport in a given volume of water is water temperature. Cooler water means more dissolved oxygen, lower oxygen consumption and less excretion of waste.

[Phone]

All,

 

I'm not saying either is "right or wrong", it's interesting what different views there are on the flipside of the penny. Oddly, the only "forbidden" stocking I can think of right off the top of my head is in a few native trout streams. Equally strange - those fish where stocking is forbidden are usually 6 inches or less in size.

 

Maybe Newt, Shakey or anyone else who have experienced "no stocking" regulations in the US can refresh me.

 

Phone

[Steve Walker]

Phone, the reports I saw from the US were all very positive about the effect on the fishing.

 

In the UK, we have stopped the stocking of fertile trout in rivers. And the trend is towards no stocking at all and C&R.