How will climate change affect our fisheries?
AS WINTER bites it can be difficult to believe that global warming is a real phenomenon. Yet whether or not you believe it’s caused by human activity, the climate is changing and this will affect our fisheries for centuries to come.
The Earth’s climate has always been in a state of flux, with periods when the planet was hotter than it is now and other times when it was significantly cooler. The last Ice Age, for example, which covered most of the UK in an ice sheet hundreds of metres thick, ended just 12,000 years ago – a mere blink in geological terms. Whatever the reasons, we’re now seeing the planet warm up and, with the complex weather patterns we see in the UK, this is already having an effect on our climate. The weather affecting the UK is becoming more extreme and less consistent.
The only certainty is that long-term global warming, climate change and disruptive weather will have consequences both good and bad
Which species will thrive?
Warmer summers and mild winters are good news for many UK species of coarse fish, many of which are close to the northern limit of their range. Species such as carp, tench and bream aren’t native to Scotland and the Borders, but are increasingly stocked in fisheries here and do well. Successful recruitment of small fish into the next generation is likely to be limited, though, particularly because of lower-than-required sustained temperatures in summer.
Higher summer temperatures and longer summers could well see recruitment improving for these species, particularly further north.
Bream may actually benefit from a longer spawning season
It’s not all good news, though, especially for some of our rare native species that require much cooler conditions. The once abundant burbot disappeared from our rivers after the last Ice Age, because it requires low temperatures to survive. Powan, a rare whitefish found in just a few glacial lakes in the UK, are also under increasing threat from rising temperatures and pollution. Grayling are perhaps another species that could see their range diminished as some rivers become too warm for them to tolerate.
Grayling are at risk from rising temperatures
Records may be broken
Will rising temperatures see our coarse fish records broken as fish will be able to grow faster? Once again, what benefits one species may limit another. Longer summers and mild winters can, other factors being equal, mean that fish can grow faster and for longer. Food must be plentiful, though, and oxygen levels must remain high for fish to feed.
Over the last few decades we’ve seen tench, carp and barbel records shoot up to weights previously thought unobtainable in the UK. Interestingly, the sizes reached by these species are now approaching those seen some years ago in mainland Europe.
The average size of specimens of all three species has also increased massively and across the whole country, which suggests that this is not just a localised phenomenon. While the carp record could be expected to increase as more fish of better strains have been stocked, the other two species are perhaps more intriguing. While many different reasons for this size increase have been postulated, only changes to the climate can explain why this has happened in so many, such diverse, venues.
Other species have seen no increase in their maximum size and specimens have, if anything, become more rare.
Pike and roach are good examples of species that appear to have been ‘left behind’. Both species are not close to their northern extremity in the UK, and so the climate here is probably already close to the optimum.
The records for these species are also similar to ours in many other European countries, suggesting that they derive no benefit from climate change.
UK perch are approaching the size of those found in Europe
The results of flooding
An increase in the frequency of extreme weather is predicted to be another consequence of climate change for the British Isles, and this could have a big impact on our fisheries. Heavy rainfall, leading to flash floods, has affected many parts of the country in recent years and can have a major effect on river fisheries and adjacent stillwaters.
Floods can wash away the young-of-the-year fish, in particular, and this can lead to the loss of potentially good year classes. With the populations of many river species, such as chub, often being dominated by just a couple of year classes, it is obvious that a badly-timed flood can have a serious impact on the fishery for perhaps several decades.
Increasing volumes of water also mean that there is rightly an increased emphasis on flood management to prevent flooding in the first place. While this is essential, engineering work and removing cover from rivers to increase their water capacity can destroy important habitats for fish and other animals and plants. Even if floods themselves do not damage our river fisheries, the management of flood risk may have a knock-on effect.
Whether you believe in human-made climate change or not, there are always winners and losers when the weather changes.
Predicting what these changes will be is, at best, an inexact science thanks to the complex interwoven connection between fish and their environment.
Heavy rainfall, leading to flash floods, has affected many parts of the country in recent years
Latest Environment Agency Fisheries update
Hello from everyone at the Environment Agency,
We are pleased to bring you the latest updates on our fisheries work. For Team EA, we have had a busy month, with the unsettled weather leading to multiple reports of fish in distress due to the impact that warmer temperatures have on oxygen levels in our waters. We deployed aeration equipment to several fisheries including Colliery Plantation in West Lancashire where oxygen levels were restored after three days and we have been giving advice to a number of fisheries owners.
We continue to check our fish passes for flood damage and have been arranging repair work where needed as it’s vital that our fish passes work as well as possible.
We were also pleased to announce that fishery improvement funds have just been confirmed for a host of river and stillwater improvement projects – this will see some great work on river and stillwater fisheries take place later this year. £91,750 from rod licence income is being used to fund eight projects across the Lancashire county area and is being matched by partners resulting in an overall investment of £200,000. We are also currently working on the latter stages of potentially securing additional funding that will provide further boost to our rivers and fisheries!
Increasing patrols and enforcement
Over the past month, we’ve focused more patrol efforts on the Border Esk, Ehen and Eden alongside our regular patrols after we received reports of anglers taking salmon where they shouldn’t, as well as cases of some anglers fishing without licences or being club members. We’re reminding everyone that you must obtain a licence to fish as well as necessary permissions to access a fishery. All of the money we receive from rod licence sales funds work to protect and improve our fisheries and will benefit the angling community.
We worked closely with the Police and Lake District National Park Authority over the bank holiday weekend to patrol as many hotspots for offences as we could. The lakes often see illegal camping and fishing but we were pleased to report good behavior in general.
We continue to work with the Police and Angling Trust across Cumbria and Lancashire and have again helped with the annual specialist training undertaken by Wildlife Officers. The course run by the Police has gained popularity every year and this year over 50 officers attended.
Our fishery officers also delivered additional training to Lancashire and Merseyside Police Wildlife Officers on fisheries legislation and the negative impacts of poaching game fish, stealing coarse fish from angling club waters and rivers, poaching and smuggling elvers, fish disease, alien fish and plant species and how we can work together to reduce fisheries crime.
Fish restocking
Our teams over in Norfolk have been busy installing a new fish pass on the river Wensum in Norwich. The development of this fish pass means that fish and eels now have access to an extra 5,000m of the river – a great boost for the fish population.
Environment Agency staff have also been busy near Thetford, releasing 10,000 young dace into the River Thet. The fish were part of a very large batch of dace that spawned at our National Fish Farm.
Our fish farm had a record-breaking year, with half a million fish restocked across England – our largest ever tonnage of fish! 12.3 tonnes of fish were produced at the farm in Nottinghamshire in 2019 – compared with 11.6 tonnes the previous year – an increase of 6%. In 2017, the amount of fish bred at the farm was 9 tonnes. The farm also bred over seven million larvae. We bred these at the farm for an extended period of time to ensure the larvae were more likely to survive.
Restocking our rivers not only helps boost fish populations but also supports a healthy ecology and benefits anglers.
Don’t forget to stay in touch!
Our teams work round the clock to respond to environmental incidents, including pollution or fish in distress. If you discover any Illegal fishing, pollution or incidents harming the environment please report it to the Environment Agency on 0800 80 70 60.
You can stay up-to-date with the latest news and information from the Environment Agency on Twitter and Instagram at @envagency or check out our Facebook page.
What does the future hold for our fisheries?
AS THE autumn leaves begin to turn, they herald not just the start of a new season, but also the end of one of the most remarkable summers of fishing on record.
Across the nation, clubs and day-ticket waters have been hit by a tidal wave of new pleasure anglers, giving our sport a much-needed boost. The question now remains: what does the future hold?
Many people will now be going back to work as the furlough scheme ends and, while a return to something like normal levels of angling activity is expected over the coming months, many fisheries and clubs are expanding and upgrading their facilities to accommodate the throng of new anglers ahead of the good weather returning next spring.
A tidal wave of new anglers has given our sport a much-needed boost
Aaron Grantham, manager of Lincolnshire’s Lindholme Lakes, one of Britain’s premier commercial fisheries, experienced such a busy summer that he’s completely restructuring his business plans.
“It’s been scary!” he told us.
“Numbers have dropped a bit in recent weeks, which is a good thing because the fish can have a bit of a rest, but the number of new people we saw was just incredible.
“Around 1,500 anglers visited each week, up from our usual 1,000, with a large proportion of these being pleasure anglers.
“If we can retain just 20 per cent of these newcomers next year it will be a massive boost for the industry, so we’re making some big changes to try to keep these new faces coming through the gates.”
“We’ll often have all our lakes booked on weekends for matches,” Aaron added,
“but from next year we’re going to make sure that we always have a lake or two reserved for the pleasure lads. Every weekend there will be up to 50 pegs to choose from. In addition, we’ll be building between 50 and 100 new touring caravan plots on a new site with a toilet block. We want to keep everyone happy and continue to appeal to the newcomers to our sport.”
Lindholme has big expansion plans
It’s just not day-ticket fisheries that have experienced a dramatic rise in numbers, with angling clubs across the country also experiencing unprecedented demand from new members.
Wiltshire’s Warminster and District are one such club, and its president Richard Curtis revealed how the club was so busy at times that it struggled to cope with the demand.
“It was manic. I spent three weekends solid just sending out membership cards, and we took so much money through PayPal that it shut down our account because it suspected we were money laundering!
“In the 2015/16 season we had 142 members, including just one junior. Now, we have 924 members, including around 150 juniors. It’s a dream situation that I never could have imagined would arise.”
With such a sharp rise in members you’d expect that there would have been problems with crowded banks – as has been the case at some day-ticket carp lakes – but Richard revealed that the club managed to accommodate all the newcomers, and has even expanded its portfolio as a result.
“We’ve acquired a new water, giving us six lakes and two stretches of river approximately four miles long, ensuring there’s plenty of room for people to spread out. In addition, we’ve bought tools to help maintain and improve our fisheries, such as a boat with a weed cutter, which will help to manage our waters and hopefully encourage new members to keep coming. With the influx of cash we can continue to invest in our waters and continue to thrive.”
Warminster AC saw a sharp rise in members
Bedfordshire-based Vauxhall Angling Club also experienced a record year, and even closed its memberships in mid-August after reaching its 11,500 capacity.
Head bailiff Dave Bing, was impressed with the behaviour and respect for the rules shown by club members during the summer.
“At some day-ticket waters I know there have been problems with people kicking off about various things as well as huge queues to enter fisheries,” he says,
“but our members have shown great respect for the guidelines we put in place. I think the difference is that day tickets are a commodity.
“With an angling club, members have made an investment and are part of something. There’s more of a duty of care towards other members and officials. Our bailiffs have also done a great job of ensuring that everyone follows the guidelines set out by the Angling Trust.”
Many of Vauxhall’s new members have been people that have got back into fishing after a long lay-off.
“I’ve talked to lots of people who fished as kids but then started playing football or rugby at the weekend and focused on that as their hobby instead. While these contact sports were still banned, they gave fishing another go, and many of them now say, ‘Do you know what? I’m not sure why I ever gave this up.’ Hopefully they’ll keep coming for many years, and continue supporting us and the sport we love.”
Vauxhall AC reached its capacity