Labour’s angling spokesman and Reading West MP Martin Salter has finally made good a promise he made twelve years ago to go fishing in the Thames outside the Houses of Parliament. Mr Salter joined angling author and broadcaster John Bailey for a day on the River Thames in Westminster and further downstream in London’s Docklands in order to demonstrate that the capital’s river is capable of sustaining a wide variety of fish life.
Mr Salter and Mr Bailey were filming for the Horse and Country TV channel and began by fishing underneath the famous London Eye in sight of the Palace of Westminster. They later moved down to West India Dock near to Canary Wharf where they were joined by local angling consortium secretary Mark Gammidge. The trio caught a mixed bag of bream, roach, and perch at the Docklands venue fishing in 27 feet of water. All the fish in the dock came naturally from the River Thames and have thrived in the urban environment.
Fifty years ago the River Thames in central London was declared biologically dead yet since the cleanup over the last 25 years, 125 species of fish have been recorded, caught or seen in the Thames and its estuary. The river now has small runs of migratory fish such as salmon and sea trout as well as a full range of coarse fish.
Martin Salter said:-
“I promised my fishing mates many years ago that I would try fishing from outside the House of Commons but once I was elected it was clear to me that I needed to go onto the other bank in order to find somewhere safe to stand and fish. When I was contacted by Horse and Country TV I suggested that we tried catching some fish from the middle of London. Unfortunately, all I managed was a couple of missed bites downstream of Westminster Bridge but West India Dock was far more productive and had John Bailey and I had more time at our disposal, I’m sure we would have had a net full.”
He added:-
“I would love to see the banks of London’s river lined with anglers as is so often the case in other European capitals. But for that to happen we first need to see the completion of the Thames Tideway Tunnel to prevent the unacceptable amount of raw sewage that is still legally discharged into the river at times of heavy rain.”
