Angling Trust chief executive Mark Lloyd visited the Shropshire Meres to meet fishery owners and angling clubs to hear about the problems they were facing from predators such as cormorants and otters, and solutions they had found to managing these problems.
He visited the Shropshire Anglers Federation controlled Dorset Pools, which have been successfully fenced off to keep out otters which had taken 35 large valuable fish in 2010. 600 metres of bank were fenced with recycled materials for less than £1,000. He also visited two meres with multiple streams flowing in and out of them, ringed with reeds and trees and with complex multiple ownership that could not practicably be fenced. These are typical of the ancient meres that can be found throughout Shropshire and Cheshire.
In a meeting convened by Predation Action Group Chairman Tim Paisley, Mark met a fishery owner who had lost more than £50,000 worth of carp to otter predation and angling clubs whose match catches on the Upper Severn had been ruined by cormorant and goosander predation.
Mark Lloyd said:“We will keep pressing for more protection for fish from abstraction, pollution and hydropower developments which prevent the recruitment of juvenile fish to rivers to replace those lost to predation but there’s no doubt that predation has also had a catastrophic impact on some still water fisheries and livelihoods. The Angling Trust is working hard to identify practical help and funding for fishery owners to keep predators out. We are doing all we can to persuade government to take radical action on fish eating birds through the Review Group that was set up last year following pressure from the Angling Trust. We recognise the real damage that otters and mink can do to some fisheries, particularly when nearby natural fish populations are struggling for other reasons. I’ve asked our new national campaigns coordinator Martin Salter to lead on this important piece of work.”
Tim Paisley said:
“We were all delighted that Mark was able to take time out from his hectic schedule to come up to Shropshire to assess the escalating predation problems waters in that area are suffering from goosanders, cormorants and otters. The PAG is keen to be seen to be supporting the work of the Angling Trust and this meeting was a sign of the growing understanding between the Trust and the PAG. As a carp angler I see this as a clear and encouraging sign that the Trust has the interests of carp anglers at heart.”
