Your comments and opinion on game-fishing matters
Unseen threat
Much has been discussed about the awful sewage spilling into our rivers and how it can kill vast numbers of fish quickly, but my mind has recently turned to the more insidious consequences of this pollution. Micro plastics have been widely identified as posing a long-term threat to human health as well as that of fish. Then I remembered a story I’d read about 15 or 20 years ago — the effect of the human birth control pill and how it feminises male fish.
The effect is widely described in scientific reports on the internet, and I believe utility companies are required to remove the pills’ synthetic oestrogen from the water supply before it is returned to our taps or rivers.
But is that happening? It seems unlikely, given how much raw, untreated sewage is pouring into our rivers. So, under the radar, could this be harming the ability of trout and salmon to reproduce? Faced by so many other threats to their survival, the last thing a male salmon needs right now is shrunken testes.
Perhaps one of your science-minded correspondents can ease my concerns?
What has been achieved?
I will get to the point. With all the projects implemented by all the scientists and biologists in the last 30 years, what has been achieved? I will tell you: they have managed to get the Atlantic salmon on the Red List. That’s the result of 30 years of failed projects.
It’s time we started naming and shaming people in Government, the biologists and scientists who have made these decisions and told us how to run our rivers. They need to be held accountable for the state that salmon are in now. When will these people and everyone involved get the hatcheries up and running? You name me a river full of fish by natural rejuvenation.
