2023 - A Review of Campaigns

FIGHTING FOR FISH, FISHING & THE ENVIRONMENT

2023: A REVIEW OF CAMPAIGNS

Angling Trust campaigns work is made possible by the generous support of the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation

Meet the Angling Trust Campaigns & Environment Teams A SMALL TEAM WITH BIG IMPACT

STUART SINGLETON-WHITE

MARTIN SALTER

HEAD OF CAMPAIGNS

HEAD OF POLICY

HANNAH RUDD

GALINI SAMLIDOU

KRIS KENT

POLICY & ADVOCACY MANAGER

CATCHWISE COORDINATOR

POLICY & CAMPAIGNS MANAGER

DR EMILY SMITH HEAD OF ENVIRONMENT

SAM JONES SALMON ANGLER ENGAGEMENT OFFICER

And thanks to the dedicated staff from across the Angling Trust who have supported us in our work.

03

Table of Contents

01

Message from Jamie Cook CEO

02

03

04

05

06

07

Overview of the Year

Cold, Clean Water: The Fight for the King of Fish

Action for the Environment

Sustainable Seas

Water Resources & Chalk Streams

Fighting Your Corner

01 JAMIE COOK CEO Welcome to this second annual campaign review. It has been another busy year as we pursue our mission to fight for fish, fishing, and the environment. As you will see in these pages, the small professional team of campaigners have been busy on your behalf. Their work has been in support of all forms of angling; coarse, game, and sea. It is a privilege for me to lead such a dedicated and passionate team.

But, as this review shows, the real heroes are you, the many anglers and volunteers who support our work. The many thousands of hours you dedicate to supporting a healthy future for angling is not only inspiring, but often leaves me humbled and full of respect and admiration. Our angling community is stronger because of the work you do. Increasingly, angling is taking its rightful place as one of the leading communities fighting for a healthier water environment, whether that’s for our rivers, our stills waters, or our seas. Your knowledge, experience, and passion are the foundation of the work we do through our campaigning and advocacy.

No more is this true than in the remarkable growth of our water quality monitoring network. With over 600 volunteers across the country, we are already making a difference, delivering action and change at the local level, and collectively we are able to use your efforts and the evidence you are gathering to demand change nationally.

So too in seas, where anglers are at the forefront of driving research and data gathering to help us gain a better understanding of the fish we care about, their habitats, and the need to manage them sustainably. Anglers working to ensure we have a strong voice in the management of marine fisheries, and the value we bring to protecting the environment, to improving people's health, and to contributing to the economy of coastal communities is properly recognised.

Both these examples are anglers giving up their time to deliver benefits, not only for the future of our sport but for the wider community who, like us, see the value in spending time on, in, and near to our blue spaces.

Our work is not done, far from it. As we show in this review, while there have been successes, there have been disappointments too. There are many challenges ahead. In the coming year, all the issues we highlight will remain live issues we are working on. And we are likely to face a change in

05

government, potentially the first since the Angling Trust was formed. But whoever is in power, we will continue to fight of our fish, your fishing, and the environment ensuring anglers and angling has a strong and professional representative voice in the corridors of power.

Thank you for your support, for the work you do and the dedication you bring.

And please, encourage other anglers to join us. Angling needs a strong, active community to come together and fight for our sport.

Jamie Cook CEO Angling Trust

06

02 OVERVIEW OF THE YEAR

It is thanks to the support, passion, and work of our members that the Angling Trust has been able to remain at the centre of the action when it comes to protecting both the freshwater and marine environments upon which our sport depends. Our fight for fish, fishing, and the environment has taken place on many fronts, from the riverbank and coast to the very heart of government. Over the past year the voice of angling and anglers has grown. As this review shows, there have been successes, but also disappointments. Many challenges remain, and continued support of our work is vital if we are to continue to protect the interests of angling and fight for a clean and healthy environment, full of fish, for us all to enjoy.

Anglers Against Pollution continues to grow, placing us at the heart of the public outcry around the continued abuse of our rivers from both water companies and agriculture. Too often, the blatant disregard for our rivers and fish has continued. The government’s response has been poor, in many places the regulators, both the Environment Agency (EA) and The Water Services Regulation Authority (Ofwat), have failed in their duties, and in many cases, water companies have continued to break the law. Leaving it to our sister organisation, Fish Legal, and others to haul them into court due to the failure of the EA to act.

A CAUTIONARY NOTE

As part of our Anglers Against Pollution campaign, the Water Quality Monitoring Network (WQMN) of anglers and angling clubs has grown and is still growing. Anglers have taken up the challenge with enthusiasm, we now have over 600 volunteers, from more than 233 clubs, monitoring 173 rivers across 60 catchments. Our WQMN is fast becoming the biggest citizen science network regularly monitoring the quality of our rivers. The data volunteers are gathering is vital in our work to hold water companies, the EA, and the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) to account, and to continue to demand more action, more quickly.

Alongside this Campaign Annual Review, we will be publishing our analysis of the first year’s data collected from across the country, showing just how water companies, the EA, and Defra continue to fail our rivers, and to fail us. But the WQMN is more than just a data gathering exercise. It is driving action and making a difference. In this review we showcase two examples, as far apart as Yorkshire and Kent, on just how, led by anglers, communities are taking matters into their own hands and driving action to improve the water quality it their local rivers.

07

Supporting the work of local anglers and angling clubs in their fight to clean up their rivers, we have continued to fight at the national level. Working with partners such as WildFish, River Action, and the Blueprint for Water coalition, as well as with local groups like WASP, we continue to highlight the complete failure to understand the seriousness of the state of our rivers. We continue to push for more action and more funding, highlighting the inadequacies of the government’s storm overflow reduction plans, their failure to act on their own commitments through the Environment Act, their Environment Improvement Plan, and their own Plan for Water. The fact that for the year 2021/22 we still had to suffer an average of 1,845 spills a day, you can see why it is investment and delivery that we need, not more plans and promises.

With over five million tonnes of plastic used in the UK every year, our Anglers Against Litter campaign has continued to highlight and take action on litter and plastic pollution. Too often, that litter ends up washed into our rivers and flows down to our seas. We have now provided over 108 litter picking kits to clubs across the country. And anglers continue to show their commitment to clean up our rivers and seas. In the past year, we have worked with 115 clubs and organised 25 events across the country bringing different angling communities and environmental organisations together to take action to restore and protect our waterways and support national litter initiatives such as the Great British Spring Clean.

We have continued to support the fantastic work of the Anglers National Line Recycling Scheme who have, so far, recycled 81 million metres of old recreational fishing line and spools, preventing much of this from becoming litter. And the Angling Trust, working with local anglers, have installed over 100 recycling bins in freshwater and coastal areas across England.

A CAUTIONARY NOTE

As with Anglers Against Pollution, it is this practical action on the ground by anglers, that gives us strength and legitimacy when we tackle the failings of the government and its agencies. We continue to call for comprehensive action to address the UK’s throw-away culture, to develop the infrastructure that enables recycling of wider range of products by manufacturers and encourages greater Extended Producer Responsibility. In October 2023, businesses in England were banned from the supply of certain single-use items including plastic cutlery. However, this represents a token gesture with greater measures urgently needed to stem the flow of litter entering our rivers and seas.

Alongside poor water quality, another threat to the health of our rivers and fish in the lack of water. Too often, too many rivers, and the groundwater on which many of them depend for their flow, suffer from over abstraction. Over the past year we have continued to work on the policy details as water companies, Ofwat, and the government develop their management plans for the coming five-year period, starting in 2025.

This may seem distant from our simple joy of being able to go fishing, but it is vital work. Over the course of the year, each water company has developed its Water Resource Management Plan as part of its overall business plan. In addition, water companies have worked at a regional level to produce five Regional Water Resource Plans for England. We have continued to push for more action, through these plans, to protect our environment. This means leaving more water in our rivers and aquifers. We need to see water companies creating more water storage by building more reservoirs, doing more to fix leaks, and seeing both water companies and the government do more to help us all reduce the amount of water we consume. The water companies’ plans are now with Ofwat and the government for consideration. They will be publishing their final versions in the spring of 2024.

One group of rivers that continue to be badly impacted by over abstraction are our chalk streams. We continue to push for the inclusion of the ‘chalk streams first’ concept that the Angling Trust and others developed, whereby we shift abstraction from the head waters of the Chiltern chalk streams to lower down the catchments, allowing the rivers to have first use of the water. Supporting the Angling Trust Ambassador, Charles Rangeley-Wilson, we have been lobbying both Thames Water and Affinity Water to include ‘chalk streams first’ as part of their plans.

A CAUTIONARY NOTE

One fish that is arguably a good indicator of the health of both our rivers and sea is the Atlantic salmon. As a leading member of the Missing Salmon Alliance, we have been collectively combining fisheries science and practical action with lobbying for greater protection, and for salmon to be given greater conservation priority. What is required to bring salmon back from the brink was set out in our Salmon Angling Manifesto that we published at the beginning of the year. Both the EA and Natural Resources Wales (NRW) are reviewing their plans for salmon. Our Salmon Angling Manifesto is a key part of their considerations, and we will be pushing both agencies hard to do more to free up our rivers, protect spawning grounds, and protect salmon as they migrate to and from the sea through our coastal waters and estuaries. It has been too easy for these agencies to simply place further restrictions on angling rather than tackle the real causes of their decline,

09

2023 has been the year in which we have seen the recognition of the importance of recreational sea angling, we secured as part of the Fisheries Act 2020, become a reality. With it has come both opportunities and challenges. Some of the biggest changes in the way fisheries are managed in UK waters will be with the formation of a suite of Fisheries Management Plans (FMPs). Many of these will be of direct interest to sea anglers and will cover the management of species they like to target. Work on the first set of these FMPs began this year. Some of the FMPs are species specific, such as the Bass Management Plan, others will cover a range of species across a sea area, such as the English Channel Demersal Non-Quota Species Plan. We have been working hard to ensure that sea angling voices are heard during the development of these FMPs. Not only when it comes to the public consultations but through the work being done by Defra, Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (CEFAS) and the Marine Management Organisation (MMO) in development of the FMPs. In addition, we have secured places for recreational sea angling on a number of government working groups that look at the management of fish stocks in English waters. It is early days, we have only been recognised as a stakeholder for less than three years and there is still a lot of resistance from other stakeholders. But we are continuing to fight for sea angling interests wherever and whenever we can.

A CAUTIONARY NOTE

One area of success has been in securing funding to support sea angling. In this review we set out the different ways we have secured funding to support work to expand line recycling, or to support the funding on infrastructure improvements to support angling. The biggest source of funding the government has awarded is through partnerships with sea anglers, charter boat skippers, and universities, to carry out research programmes. Anglers have been central to these projects providing, not only, their extensive knowledge and experience but their passion for protecting fish stocks and the marine environment upon which they depend.

During the year we took a step closer to seeing the introduction of a recreational catch and release bluefin tuna fishery. Alongside the UK Bluefin Tuna Association, we have been working with Defra on the introduction of this fishery, starting in 2024. A public consultation took place over the summer, and we are now working with the government on the detail of how this fishery will work and be managed. This has come about after the success of the CHART bluefin research programme, which operated for its third year in 2023, where a limited number of trained charter skippers have been able to take anglers fishing for bluefin, tagging, recording, and releasing any caught. The success of CHART, with its high welfare standards and low mortality rates is directly informing the design of the recreational fishery to come.

10

We hope you will enjoy reading about all the work we do on behalf of anglers and the environment so vital to our sport. There have been many successes in the past year, but disappointments too. And as we look towards 2024 there are many challenges ahead. In the coming year, we may see a change of government for the first time since the Angling Trust was formed. We will be working tirelessly to ensure whoever forms the next government, they know just how important angling is to protecting our environment, to allowing people to enjoy time by our rivers, lakes, and at the coast with all the health benefits that brings, and to the economic contribution our sport makes. All of the subjects we are reporting on in this review will remain live issues in the year ahead, and no doubt, a few more will be added to the list.

We can do none of this work without the support of our funders and our members. But most importantly, we can do none of this without the passion and commitment of the thousands of anglers across the country who care so much for our fish, our fishing, and the environment.

Stuart Singleton-White, Head of Campaigns

Angling Trust Water Quality Monitoring Network & Anglers Against Pollution supported by Orvis

03 ACTION FOR THE ENVIRONMENT

Our rivers continue to be blighted by pollution. Agriculture and the water industry are the main culprits with the discharge of raw sewage into our rivers and seas, and the impact of agriculture in degrading fragile aquatic environments. These threats and the damage they are doing are now much better known and understood.

Farmers continue to put excessive nutrients into the environment whilst many rivers suffer with sediment runoff clogging spawning gravels. There have been numerous incidents where slurry storage failures have wiped out invertebrate and fish life on extensive sections of rivers, sometimes whole rivers. Not to mention the effect of herbicides and pesticides on aquatic life.

The water industry figures from 2021/2022 make grim reading: Number of sewage spills - 673,624 (1,845 spills per day on average) Total duration of spill events - 4,422,372 hours (12,116 hours per day on average) Whilst recent investigations have revealed that Thames, Wessex, and Southern Water appear to have collectively released sewage in dry spills for 3,500 hours in 2022, in breach of their permits, and that is just the three water companies who released data to the media.

A CAUTIONARY NOTE

The government continues to consult on plans to address storm overflows but there is a lack of urgency, with targets still set for the dim and distant future. Their attempt to rip up the nutrient neutrality regulations that offer our rivers some protection from developers shows a disregard for the health of our rivers. They have also kicked the next Water Framework Directive assessment down the road, most likely because they know that our rivers are in decline and that they are going to fail their own target of “improving at least three quarters of our waters to be close to their natural state’ by 2027.”

At a time when our rivers need them most the regulators continue to fail them. Whilst the number of farm advisory visits by the Environment Agency (EA) has increased the EA’s lack of appetite to prosecute failing farmers means their recommendations often fall on deaf ears.

The EA continues to monitor our rivers so infrequently and at so few locations that their monitoring results are spatially and temporarily flawed.

Since 1948 the Angling Trust has been campaigning for cleaner waterways and we will continue the fight for a better future for our environment by holding the government to account for its promises, its actions, and its responsibilities. As part of its Anglers Against Pollution Campaign, the Angling Trust has put forward 12 actions that are urgently needed:

13

1. The English and Welsh Governments to establish fully funded policies to address pollution in our waterways that deliver improvements now, not in the dim and distant future.

2. Government to fund the enforcement of regulatory standards and implementation of the polluter pays principle across all sectors.

3. Government to fast track the mapping and replacement of septic tanks discharging into surface waters, with a focus on high-risk areas such as protected sites.

4. Government to ensure that the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), the Water Services Regulation Authority (Ofwat), the Environment Agency (EA), and Natural Resources Wales (NRW) prioritise addressing the pollution of our rivers and that they are properly funded to do so.

5. Government to provide significant investment in local and catchment wide nature-based improvements, working with nature and using natural processes to protect and improve water quality.

6. Government to include gateway requirements and specific options in all three Environmental Land Management schemes that go beyond regulatory baselines and basic good business practice and encourage farmers to achieve clean water in watercourses and waterbodies across their holdings. Options should range from basic soil health measures to large-scale habitat creation through arable reversion.

7. Government to drive compliance with agricultural diffuse water pollution regulations by establishing a comprehensive advice and training regime to support land managers, complementing enforcement work.

8. Farmers to stop polluting rivers and to comply with the most basic regulations such as Nitrate Vulnerable Zone (NVZ), Silage, Slurry and Agricultural Fuel Oil (SSAFO), Environmental Permitting Regulations (EPR), and the Farming Rules for Water.

9. The EA to further increase the number of Agriculture Regulatory Inspection Officers, undertake more farm inspections, support compliance, enforce regulations and boldly prosecute noncompliance.

10. Water companies to do more, and more quickly. No bonuses for directors and senior managers until raw sewage is no longer discharged into our rivers.

11. A change of culture at the EA and NRW. They need to become detectives looking for pollution and enforcers of the law.

12. Government to follow through on its commitment to reinvest fines handed out to polluters into environmental improvements.

A CAUTIONARY NOTE

14 Page 02

In the meantime, the Angling Trust’s groundbreaking citizen science initiative is helping to build a picture of river pollution across England and Wales.

Water Quality Monitoring Network Alongside its collaboration with a wide coalition of environmental NGOs and the media, the Angling Trust has been extremely effective in making people more aware of the parlous state of our rivers and waterways. People are becoming more and more aware of the state of our waterways and the pollution blighting it, and more and more angry about the actions of the polluters and inaction of government. The Angling Trust has secured extensive media coverage, and anglers have been instrumental is raising their concerns with their local MPs. Anglers are passionate about the places they fish and have long been working on the preservation and restoration of freshwater habitats. Anglers are a potent force for good and often the unsung heroes of our rivers and still waters.

The Water Quality Monitoring Network (WQMN) was launched in May 2022 with the aims to engage anglers in better understanding the state of their waters, and to empower angling clubs to address the pollution blighting their waters. It also provides the Angling Trust with evidence to support its campaigning work, holding the government, regulators, and polluters to account.

A CAUTIONARY NOTE

Volunteers test for and record a range of parameters that are of concern to anglers, especially those nutrients - nitrate and phosphate - that contribute to enrichment, eutrophication, and the formation of algal blooms which have a detrimental impact on invertebrates and fish.

Highlight so far: Angling clubs’ heartfelt concerns for the pollution impacting their waters are demonstrated by the enthusiasm with which they have signed up to the WQMN. We have distributed 395 WQMN Monitoring Kits to over 600 volunteers, from 233 clubs, monitoring 173 rivers across 60 catchments.

The results: The results so far bear testament to the pollution crisis facing our rivers. Of the 3,000 samples recorded by the end of September 2023 …

Electrical conductivity results range from 50 to 2,730 (µS/cm) Phosphate results range from to 2.5 ppm*1. 1,153 samples exceeded the upper limit for Phosphate*2, 39%!

Nitrate results range from 0 to 50 ppm. 1,275 samples were 5 ppm or over for Nitrate, 43%!

785 samples exceeded both Phosphate and Nitrate limits*2, 26%! *1 Hanna Checker limited is 2.50 (ppm) so maximum result likely to exceed 2.50 (ppm). *2 Water Framework Directive limits for Phosphate are site specific and we are assessing against the upper limit, so it is likely that many more samples exceed their site-specific limit.)

15

492

enquires to join the Water Quality Monitoring Network

175 rivers 60 catchments

618 volunteers & 234 clubs across the network

397

the number of water quality monitoring kits we have distributed across England

Interpreting results: Electrical Conductivity - Significantly elevated electrical conductivity can indicate that pollution has entered the river. A measure of electrical conductivity cannot tell you what the pollutant is, but it can help identify that there is a problem that may harm invertebrates and/or fish. Electrical conductivity may be high in a river without any visible effects on the clarity of the river water. Any human activity that adds inorganic, charged chemicals to a river will alter the electrical conductivity. For example, electrical conductivity may be higher in a river downstream of a sewage treatment works due to chemicals such as chloride and phosphate from household products.

Phosphate - Standards for Phosphorus in UK Rivers were introduced under the Water Framework Directive (WFD) and associated Regs/Directions in 2009 and were updated in 2015. The standards are site-specific and depend upon the altitude and alkalinity of the site. The standards for good ecological status (close to natural) in Rivers are broadly in the range 0.077 – 0.306 ppm of Orthophosphate (PO43-), as annual means. This is as measured by a Hanna Colorimeter.

Note - The Hanna Colorimeter upper limit is 2.5 ppm, the lower test limit is 0.00 ppm with an accuracy of ± 0.04 ppm. So, a 0.00 ppm reading does not mean there is no phosphate present, it will be between 0.00 and 0.04 ppm. A 2.5 reading does not mean that is the total phosphate, it means that it is in excess of 2.5 ppm.

Nitrate - There are no ecological status standards for Nitrogen in Rivers. The Environment Agency’s approach is to focus on Phosphate as the main cause of river eutrophication and the nutrient they are most able to reduce to levels that will improve the ecology.

There is a standard for Lakes and Reservoirs, which is 0.75 – 1.5 mg/l (ppm). Natural levels of Nitrate in freshwater are typically low, generally well below 5 ppm.

17

WQMN in the Media The WQMN has featured across the trade and mainstream media with features in both print, online, and broadcast, at both a regional and national level.

Our interim report on the WQMN pilot on the Severn catchment has been very well received and attracted extensive coverage. Alongside this Campaign Annual Review this autumn we are publishing the first annual report of the WQMN covering all the rivers and catchments volunteers are monitoring in England and Wales.

What next?

Whilst one aim of the WQMN is to build a long-term view of the water quality of our rivers the end game is to see an improvement in that water quality, a return to their natural state. It has been great to see angling clubs using their WQMN results to start to challenge the EA, water companies, farmers and other polluters, demanding improvements to their waters.

Case Study - Nidd Catchment: On the Nidd in North Yorkshire, on the back of 163 poor WQMN results, a group of angling clubs have formed a broader community group, the Nidd Action Group (NAG), and is sharing results with local citizens, the EA, and others.

A CAUTIONARY NOTE

Rev. Brian Hunt, Chairman of Harrogate Flyfishers’ Club, said … “What I find most encouraging is that this year we have witnessed a growing outrage at river pollution not just in angling circles but right across the whole community. This issue has now forced itself into the national headlines and is not going away.”

They have organised a community collaborative project - working with the Yorkshire Dales River Trust (YDRT), the University of Leeds, the Bilton Conservation group (BCG) and the EA - to undertake a ‘tip to toe’ survey of the river Nidd and some major tributaries. 45 locations being tested for E. coli, nutrient chemistry, and heavy metal concentrations in accredited laboratories.

The angling clubs anticipate that the results of this, and other activities to raise community awareness and involvement in the water quality of our local river, will influence local regulators and Yorkshire Water to address pollution causes; contribute to an acceleration of involvement with the Nidd community and local investment; and inform the development of a Nidd Catchment plan, led by the Dales to Vale River Network (DVRN).

David Clayden, Secretary of Harrogate Flyfishers Club and Chair of Nidd Action Group, said …

“I have learnt a lot about water quality over the last couple of years and believe that unnecessary pollution should be avoided like the plague that it is. I now know just how many excellent knowledgeable citizens there are locally – not just fly fishers! - who intend to get the water quality of our river into the state that it, and we, deserve.”

18

Case Study - Medway Catchment: In Kent WQMN volunteers from several angling clubs, led by the Royal Tunbridge Wells Angling Society (RTWAS) have recorded over 215 samples and are working alongside other ecological groups, and local landowners to monitor and improve the Medway and its tributaries. The angling clubs knew there were issues but were truly shocked and saddened at what they found. This included extremely high phosphate, nitrate, ammonia, and E. coli levels.

Derek Reader, RTWAS Secretary, says … “We at Royal Tunbridge Wells Angling Society have long suspected problems with water quality on our stretches of the Upper Medway but, aside from testing dissolved oxygen and water temperature on an ad hoc basis, we were never going to pinpoint any issues to the satisfaction of scientific analysis. WQMN, along with the database being built, has allowed our excellent band of dedicated volunteers to do just that through their diligence and hard work.”

After coordinated testing and a lot of detective work they isolated the main sources of pollution on the upper catchment to three wastewater treatment works, situated within three miles of each other, and several combined sewer overflows (CSOs) discharging untreated sewage. They have proved that these are associated with Southern Water wastewater treatment works releasing untreated sewage into the rivers in a very ad hoc fashion. They also have evidence of herbicide misuse affecting the whole catchment. The once lush weed beds, present only a very few years ago, have all but gone. The main culprit is farming, but it is very hard to prove.

A CAUTIONARY NOTE

Ian Tucker, WQMN Coordinator and ‘WQMN Volunteer of the Year’ Award winner said … “Joining the Angling Trust WQMN it has given our small band of dedicated volunteers the confidence, understanding, equipment, training, focus and support needed to try, with some success, to make a real difference.” Derek Reader, RTWAS Secretary, added … “We are now very close to identifying the cause and effect of poor water quality and, through our contact with the EA, the local MP, and landowners, hope to be able to report further real progress soon”.

These are just two examples of the great work anglers are undertaking across the country to address the pollution crisis.

Further evidence, if needed, that anglers are our river heroes.

19

Looking ahead There is clearly still an appetite to get involved in monitoring our rivers and whilst we have already exceeded our recruitment target for 2023/24, we continue to recruit angling clubs and anglers to monitor further rivers across England and Wales with a major push into the southern chalk streams about to be announced.

A greater awareness of pollution is now driving a demand to address the sources of pollution. In many cases these sources are outside the control of angling clubs and require action now by farmers and the water companies. As angling clubs start to look at how to address the pollution blighting their waters, we are developing a suite of resources to support angling clubs with campaigning, enabling them to hold their local polluters to account. There is also the potential for angling clubs to undertake practical habitat work in collaboration with riparian owners, landowners, and organisations such as the Wild Trout Trust and local Rivers Trusts. To help enable this we are developing fundraising and habitat restoration resources to support angling clubs in their efforts.

A CAUTIONARY NOTE

Whilst we have developed an extensive network of angler volunteers monitoring rivers across England and Wales, we are more than aware that pollution is also impacting stillwaters, estuaries and the marine environment and that the level of pollution and its impact are often poorly understood. We are now seeking funding to expand our water quality monitoring work into stillwaters, our estuaries and coastal waters.

"A GREATER AWARENESS OF POLLUTION IS NOW DRIVING A DEMAND TO ADDRESS THE SOURCES OF POLLUTION.” KRIS KENT POLICY & CAMPAIGNS MANAGER

20

Anglers Against Litter Our rivers and oceans act as sinks for litter. With over 5 million tonnes of plastic being used in the UK every year, plastic pollution presents a growing issue that is having significant negative impacts on our freshwater and marine environments.

Plastic waste can entangle marine species, including fish, turtles, and marine mammals, leading to injuries, suffocation, and death. Plastics do not degrade, but break down into smaller and smaller fragments, creating microplastics and nanoplastics frequently being mistaken for food and ingested by wildlife resulting in internal injuries, digestive problems, and the transfer of toxic chemicals up the food chain.

Worryingly, over two thirds of the fish species studied in freshwater and marine environments contain ingested plastic and this figure is only set to increase as litter continues to enter our waters at an alarming rate.

Litter can also have an adverse effect on people’s wellbeing and safety. Litter can create unsightly freshwater and marine environments, leading to decreased wellbeing and a perception that these crucial blue spaces are unsafe, influencing people’s use and treatment of these areas. Sharp objects such as glass can cause injuries, and improperly disposed of hazardous materials can contaminate soil and water sources posing a health risk to nearby communities.

A CAUTIONARY NOTE

The Angling Trust Anglers Against Litter campaign was launched in 2019 to be the voice for anglers on litter pollution and encourage action so that anglers are part of the solution and not the problem.

The campaign continues to go from strength to strength, supporting fisheries and clubs to take action to reduce litter pollution, and calling for greater efforts to encourage a circular economy and remove litter that is already present in our environment.

Through the support of our trade sponsor, Shimano, we have provided 108 clubs and fisheries with litter picking kits, enabling them to regularly undertake litter picks to remove litter from their waterways. These has been highly popular with a waiting list for further clubs requesting kits. As well as clubs taking a stand, individual anglers are also supporting the cause by pledging their support to ‘Take 5’ – spending at least five minutes to pick up all litter they find at their local fishing spot. It has been great to see the photos come in from clubs out there using our kits, as well as seeing other messages from other clubs around the country tagging us in their story by using our hashtag #AnglersAgainstLitter. As well as

21

providing kit to clubs, the Angling Trust has engaged 115 clubs and organised at least 25 events across the country bringing different angling communities and environmental organisations together to collectively take action to restore and protect our waterways and support national litter initiatives such as the Great British Spring Clean.

We support the Anglers National Line Recycling Scheme (ANLRS), a fantastic initiative that has currently recycled 81 million metres of old recreational fishing line and spools, turning these materials into new products that benefit the angling community. The Angling Trust has helped to install over 100 ANLRS recycling bins in freshwater and coastal areas across England and continues to highlight this scheme to government as a great example of responsible waste management.

Alongside action on the ground to tackle litter pollution, the Angling Trust continues to call for more comprehensive action to address the UK’s throw-away culture, to develop the infrastructure that enables recycling of a wider range of products by manufacturers and encourages greater Extended Producer Responsibility. In October 2023, the government banned businesses in England from supplying and selling certain single-use items including plastic cutlery.

However, this represents a token gesture with greater measures urgently needed to stem the flow of litter entering our rivers and oceans.

A CAUTIONARY NOTE

Looking ahead Anglers are passionate about litter and conserving their local freshwater and marine habitats. There is unrelenting enthusiasm for the Anglers Against Litter campaign, and with a waiting list for further litter picking equipment, we will continue to support angling clubs and individuals to undertake litter pick events across England.

With a rapidly expanding volunteer network undertaking litter picks across England, our next step will be to capture further information on the types of litter in our rivers, lakes, and washing up on our beaches.

We aim to create a standardised litter survey that can be undertaken by our volunteer clubs once a year to obtain a snapshot of the most common types of litter. This will help to increase our understanding of litter in our freshwater and marine ecosystems, helping to inform our ongoing advocacy efforts to reduce litter pollution.

22

Love Fishing Love Nature Love Fishing Love Nature is our latest campaign which focuses on highlighting the substantial efforts anglers are taking to conserve the environment and demonstrate the health and wellbeing benefits that comes from spending time in the outdoors. For many anglers, the main reason for their love of fishing is their passion for the environment and having the opportunity to be close to nature. Within the National Angling Survey (2019), almost 90% said that experiencing nature and scenery and escaping crowds and noise was important to them. As a result, the angling community represent a highly active conservation community with 56% of anglers regularly taking part in environmental action to protect and restore their waterways.

A project in the Colne Valley represents a fantastic example of the collaborative effort that has been undertaken between the angling community and environmental groups to enable action to maximise the positive impact that fisheries can have on biodiversity. With support from the National Lottery Heritage Fund the Colne Valley Fisheries Consultative and the Hertfordshire & Middlesex Wildlife Trust ran the Fisheries and Wetland Management Scheme, an accredited course covering a variety of projects from wetland habitat management, fish biology and health through to silt control. It upskilled angling clubs giving them the skills and knowledge needed to produce their own environmental management plans and, through follow up funding linked to the project, implement those plans to maximise habitats for fish and wildlife. The project resulted in substantial wildlife enhancements, expanding the abundance of the endangered water vole and the iconic kingfisher within the catchment.

A CAUTIONARY NOTE

Another prime example is the work the Nidderdale Angling Club have done to rebuild wild trout populations on the River Nidd. Working alongside the Wild Trout Trust and the Yorkshire Dales River Trust, the club restored important mesohabitats for juvenile fish within the tributaries, increasing the diversity of habitats within the catchment, providing simultaneous benefits for fish and other aquatic communities. Monitoring fish populations before and after the work demonstrated a doubling of fish numbers within a three-year period and increased the understanding and connection of the club with their local river.

Through our Fisheries Industry Science Programmes (FISP), outlined in further detail later in the review, anglers are also undertaking

23

substantial work to protect and conserve the marine environment.

Working in partnership with a variety of organisations, anglers are helping to gather vital data and evidence on marine species and their habitats. These programmes will provide valuable information to improve our understanding on the current state of fish stocks and the importance of different habitats at particular stages of a fish’s life cycle. Combined, this data will help to inform sustainable fisheries management strategies improving the conservation of marine fish species and the environments they rely on.

Looking ahead We feel like we have only begun to scratch the surface of the potential with this campaign. With over 12,000 stillwater fisheries in England, and angling clubs having access to extensive river catchments, estuaries and seas, there are endless opportunities to upskill the angling community enabling them to implement management practices that maximise wildlife and conserve important fish populations.

A CAUTIONARY NOTE

Building upon the success of the Colne Valley project, we are currently seeking funding to expand this collaborative approach into other catchments in England. We are also exploring opportunities to enable further support for practical conservation efforts by angling clubs in marine and freshwater environments. This includes establishing a baseline of the current state of biodiversity, from which, we can showcase the importance of these spaces as refuges for biodiversity and create complementary habitat restoration resources to support angling clubs in making space for nature on their sites.

"WE FEEL LIKE WE HAVE ONLY BEGUN TO SCRATCH THE SURFACE OF THE POTENTIAL WITH THIS CAMPAIGN. " DR EMILY SMITH HEAD OF ENVIRONMENT

24

Invasive Non-Native Species Invasive species are one of the key threats to freshwater and marine environments. Introduced either by accident or by intentional human activity, these species can rapidly establish themselves in new habitats and outcompete native species for resources. They disrupt the delicate balance of an ecosystem, leading to a decline in biodiversity and in some cases the irreversible loss of important ecological functions. Invasive species incur major economic costs, estimated to cost the UK economy at least £2 billion per year, whilst species such as giant hogweed present health risks, causing severe burns when their sap comes into contact with bare skin.

Once established, invasive species are often hard to eradicate and invasive species often alter ecosystems, making them more favourable for further invasive species to establish. Alarmingly, 10-12 non-native species continue to establish in Great Britain every year, with at least one of those (potentially four if they were all aquatic species) likely to be invasive. As more and more invasive species are introduced to the UK, these positive interactions between species may facilitate further invasions resulting in a ‘biological meltdown’ and exacerbate their impacts. Climate change is a compounding factor, with warmer conditions and ecological disruption further assisting new species to establish. Unless effectively addressed numbers will continue to rise for the foreseeable future.

A CAUTIONARY NOTE

Despite this, invasive species, and biosecurity (measures put in place to stop new species arriving) has been chronically underfunded compared to other biosecurity regimes, receiving only 0.4% of the total UK biosecurity spend in 2019. Following the Environment Audit Committee in 2019 (to which the Angling Trust provided evidence), a pilot Invasive Species Inspectorate has been established to enforce the Invasive Species Regulation. There are currently 10 inspectorates being trialled for a 3-year period. This represents a first step, but the inspectorate remains critically under resourced compared to the 1,000 Animal Health Officers currently in place in the UK and 100 additional Plant Health Officers hired at limited notice to assist with the transition of the UK out of the EU. We are working with our environmental coalitions to call for the Invasive Species Inspectorate to be made permanent and for inspectors to be provided with the powers necessary to undertake inspections at the border, a key requirement to facilitate effective national biosecurity.

25

As well as our advocacy work around invasive species biosecurity we continue to encourage the angling community to embed biosecurity measures into their angling practices and fishery management.

Through the Angling Improvement Fund (AIF) over £200,000 has been provided to support clubs in installing effective wash down facilities and management action at their waters to help control invasive species. We have also provided technical advice to help the angling community implement the GB Angling Pathway Action Plan and assist clubs in completing biosecurity risk assessments to reduce the unintentional risk of introducing species into, or from, their sites.

Although it is essential to prevent the arrival of invasive species in the first place, it is also crucial to manage established species to control their populations and minimise their impacts on habitats and native communities. In 2023, we provided advice to at least 280 clubs on invasive species management ranging from giant hogweed through to Chinese mitten crab and signal crayfish. We remain instrumental to the delivery of the GB Floating Pennywort Strategy, a national partnership developed between government and non-government organisations to coordinate resources to strategically manage floating pennywort in Great Britain. Following our successful project in the Thames Basin (2021-2022), where we developed methods for effective collaborative control of this species, this work has continued to go from strength to strength, expanding into further catchments including the River Weaver, Lea, and Witham. Since 2021 we have run over 60 floating pennywort events, working with over 100 different clubs and environmental organisations including British Canoeing, Rivers Trusts, Wildlife Trusts, and the National Trust.

A CAUTIONARY NOTE

Looking ahead Invasive species remain a key focus for us into 2024. We will continue to provide advice to clubs and fisheries on how to implement biosecurity best practice, identify and report priority invasives and undertake strategic management to reduce the impact of established species.

We also plan to develop an interactive online package for the angling community which brings together all our guidance documents and educational materials on invasive species into one immersive platform. This will present a new exciting tool to advance how we share best practice with our volunteers and if successful, hopefully represents the first in a series of immersive environmental modules that we can create and share with the angling community

26

to upskill anglers on how to protect and conserve their aquatic environment.

Following government delays, in 2024 there will be opportunity to review the listing of new species under the Invasive Species Regulation. This provides the opportunity to ensure high-risk species such as the Ponto-Caspian round goby are listed to ensure measures are put in place to prevent these species arriving in the UK. We will continue to put pressure on government to provide long-term ringfenced funding for invasive species management, and push for the Invasive Species Inspectorate to be made permanent. The release of the long-awaited Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) report on invasive species also represents an opportunity for further invasive species advocacy. Published in September 2023, this represents the first comprehensive global report on invasive species and highlighted the widespread and growing negative impact of invasive species on global biodiversity with more than 37,000 non-native species introduced worldwide costing at least $423 billion a year. The outputs of this report are still being digested by the environmental NGO coalitions but will provide substantial evidence to support advocacy in this area.

A CAUTIONARY NOTE

“WE WILL CONTINUE TO PUT PRESSURE ON GOVERNMENT TO PROVIDE LONG-TERM RINGFENCED FUNDING FOR INVASIVE SPECIES MANAGEMENT, AND PUSH FOR THE INVASIVE SPECIES INSPECTORATE TO BE MADE PERMANENT.” DR EMILY SMITH HEAD OF ENVIRONMENT

27

“These clear-watered streams are a valuable habitat for Atlantic salmon, sea trout, grayling and lamprey, for rare invertebrates such as the winterbourne stonefly, and plants like stream water crowfoot.”

04 WATER RESOURCES AND CHALK STREAMS

We may not have had the extreme heat and drought this year, but the pressure on our water resources and chalk streams has not gone away. And the unusual dry and hot weather we experienced in early October reminds us that our weather is changing with the climate change and nature crisis both posing threats to our rivers and aquifers. We often think we are a wet island, but many parts of England, particularly the South-East and East are classed as water stressed. They get less rain per-year than places such as Sydney, Rome, and Rio de Janeiro. We are still taking too much water from our environment, have not built a new reservoir since before the privatisation of the water companies, have among the highest levels of water consumption per person in Europe – given the amount we use and the amount we waste through things like leaking pipes – and do not leave enough water for our environment, our fish, and wildlife.

Working through coalitions such as Blueprint for Water and the Catchment Based Approach (CaBA) Chalk Stream Restoration Strategy Group we have been focused on pushing the government, regulators, and water companies to do more and to prioritise the protection of the environment in their plans for managing our water resources in the future.

A CAUTIONARY Managing our water resources is a complex policy process;NOTE unnecessarily so. It is based on a five-year cycle through which water companies set out their plans through things like Water Resource Management Plans (WRMP), the Water Industry National Environment Plan (WINEP), their business plans, and the periodic price review process, this year’s round is known as PR24 (with the price being set in 2024 to cover the years 2025 to 2030). This ridged system is buckling under the strain of climate change and the nature crisis, and we have been calling on the government and industry regulators to look to a more flexible approach; what is known as adaptive management. Through the Regional Water Resource Plans, which sit alongside the water company plans, this idea is being taken up, though not until after 2050.

After responding to the consultation on the water companies plans at the beginning to 2023, water companies published their plans in early October. These have now been presented to the government and Ofwat for review. We will know their response by the middle of 2024.

While we, like many, have expressed our anger at the profligate waste of money we have seen from the failed model of water privatisation, with too much being taken in paying dividends to shareholders and bonuses to bosses. Loading the companies with mountains of debt instead of investing in keeping our rivers clean and protecting wildlife. We recognise that the draft plans now put forward by the companies mark a big change in approach and a big uplift in investment to protect our freshwater environment. They had

29

no choice, given the level of anger many anglers and the public have shown about their past performance. We will be pushing the government and Ofwat to accept this level of investment. If we are to meet the government’s own commitments to clean up our rivers, this must happen. It will mean that between now and 2030 water bills will have to go up. We want to ensure the most vulnerable are protected, and that more is done to support information and education to help us all use less water and to treat it as the precious resource it is.

The government has committed to bringing in water efficiency labelling, something we have been calling for, to help us save water. The idea is to have labelling similar to the energy efficiency labels that are common on many goods we buy. We look forward to this being rolled out in 2024.

We will continue to pressurise the government and Ofwat to do more to reduce abstraction from our rivers and aquifers, support investment in reducing demand, including being more ambitious in fixing leaking pipes, and in creating more water storage through the building of reservoirs. We are calling on the government, including whoever wins the next general election to:

A CAUTIONARY NOTE

1. Radically overhaul the regulation of the water industry and get rid of this farcical distinction between economic and environmental regulators by abolishing Ofwat and reforming the governance of the EA so it becomes a bulldog not a lapdog.

2. Restore the funding for EA’s pollution control staff and stop relying on flawed operator self-monitoring by the water companies. These people should not be marking their own homework.

3. Withhold all subsidies from agricultural businesses that fail to comply with environmental regulation or damage local river catchments.

4. Reform the Water Industry Act to make water companies properly accountable and give new powers to ministers to take over failing water companies, sack the board and restructure the business.

5. Require all pollution fines to be returned to the environment either to fund tougher regulation or local environmental improvements, instead of disappearing into treasury coffers.

6. Require all planning consents for new developments to make a contribution to upgrading wastewater infrastructure and fresh water supply.

7. Accept that water is a precious, public resource upon which all life depends and value it accordingly.

30

Fighting for Chalk Streams England is home to 85% of the world’s chalk streams. From majestic rivers presenting bucolic images of pastural scenes, to small, but no less important streams, many of which run through suburban and urban landscapes. Chalk streams hold a special place in the history of angling. With so many of the world’s chalk streams found in England, we have a responsibility to look after them, to protect and restore them for future generations. If Brazil has the Amazon, Australia its Great Barrier Reef, so England has its chalk streams.

All is not well. Many of our chalk streams, found in the south and east of England, have suffered for decades at the hand of man. Historically, they have been impounded along much of their lengths, to create water meadows to improve agriculture, allow the development of milling, and seen the growth of industries such as watercress production. As these activities have declined and new ways of managing our land have evolved along with population growth and urban development, so the threats to chalk streams have changed and increased, from over development, from over abstraction of water from the chalk aquifer, from pollution whether from sewage effluent or agricultural run-off.

A CAUTIONARY NOTE

Anglers have been fighting to protect chalk streams for decades and were instrumental in setting up many of the restoration groups now working to protect and restore their rivers, not only to enjoy their fishing, but to improve their rivers, its wildlife and for people to enjoy.

As part of our work to secure greater protection for chalk streams we secured an amendment to the government's Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill. Thanks to our efforts, and led by Viscount Trenchard, we secured cross party support in the House of Lords, forcing the government to bring forward their own changes to the Bill.

These changes will allow local planning authorities to give greater consideration to the impact of development on chalks streams, and in the government’s own words, will, “add chalk streams into the definitions of ‘environmental protection’ and ‘natural environment’, making it clear that when setting the outcomes that will drive the new [planning] regime, the Government may set explicit outcomes as to the protection of chalk streams.” This will not deliver our ‘one big wish’ for full protection of our chalk streams, as part of the Chalk Stream Restoration Strategy, but it is a step along the road to that goal.

Led by Angling Trust Ambassador, Charles Rangeley-Wilson, the CaBA Chalk Stream Restoration Strategy Group, of which the Angling Trust is a leading member, published its first annual review

31

of progress against the 32 recommendation it developed to tackle the challenges faced by our chalk streams. This was followed up with a major conference in July at which the government minister, Rebecca Pow, committed the government to develop a chalk streams improvement plan of action by the end of 2023. The need for this was highlighted by the progress report, which showed that it was Defra and the government who were falling behind on actions to address the recommendations set out in the Chalk Stream Restoration Strategy.

The Angling Trust has also been supporting the work of Charles Rangeley-Wilson through the concept we collectively developed called ‘Chalk Streams First’. This is where the abstraction for the chalk aquifer is shifted from the head waters of the Chiltern chalk streams to further downstream, allowing the chalk streams to have first use of the water. Over the past year, we have been supporting efforts for this concept to be taken up by both Thames and Affinity Water as part of our demands to reduce abstraction from the chalk aquifer. In February 2023 we supported the publication of a technical report showing that such changes and reduction were possible.

The ‘Chalk Streams First’ proposal is not the only solution to our water supply crisis but forms part of a multi-dimensional response that should include more reservoirs. But the proposal could be implemented by 2030 well ahead of the other options available.

A CAUTIONARY NOTE

Looking Ahead Policy development will dominate much of our work in the year ahead. We will continue to keep pressure on the water companies, Ofwat, and Defra to maintain and increase their level of ambition to invest to protect our environment, whether that is through reducing abstraction, reducing demand for water, fixing leaks, or creating more storage.

Working with the CaBA Chalk Stream Restoration Strategy Group we will continue to press for all the recommendations made by the group to be implemented to ensure our chalk streams are protected and restored to their former glory. Including work with angling groups to promote the work they do and their own efforts to protect these iconic rivers.

With a general election likely, and a possible change of government, we will be working to highlight the importance of chalk streams as the irreplaceable habitats of global importance, and the role anglers play in their protection.

32

"Salmon is the King of Fish. Their journeys up rivers are some of the most thrilling spectacles of the natural world. Yet, now, their very survival is at risk.

- Sir David Attenborough speaking during the International Year of the Salmon

05 COLD, CLEAN WATER: THE FIGHT FOR THE KING OF FISH

The Atlantic salmon, as one of the most ancient native species in the United Kingdom, holds a significant position within British heritage, culture, and identity. Its annual return to the vast river network continues to play a crucial role in sustaining local economies. Functioning as sentinel species, salmon serve as vital indicators of river health, reflecting the overall wellbeing of our global rivers, oceans, and our interconnectedness with the natural world that sustains human existence. With their remarkable capacity to thrive in both fresh and saltwater environments and their extraordinary migrations, salmon act as a conduit for nutrients, linking marine and riparian ecosystems. Consequently, salmon significantly enhance the quality of life for many people across Britain, impacting both tangible aspects such as food and the economy, as well as intangible aspects through the diverse experiences offered by various forms of fishing.

The decline in the number of salmon returning to their spawning grounds has been nothing short of dramatic since the 1970s, and there exists a real threat that these majestic creatures could vanish from many of our rivers during our lifetimes unless immediate action is taken.

The most recent stock assessment report, a collaborative effort between CEFAS, the EA and NRW, is cause for profound concern. In 2020, a troubling 48% of salmon rivers were classified as 'at risk,' indicating that salmon stocks were no longer sustainable. However, the latest report paints an even bleaker picture, with 74% of rivers now falling into this 'at risk' category.

The region's most severely impacted are the Southwest, Northwest, and Wales. Notably, only the River Tyne in England remains classified as 'not at risk.'

A CAUTIONARY NOTE

Salmon Angling Manifesto This January the Angling Trust took the plight of Atlantic Salmon to the heart of parliament with the launch of a Salmon Angling Manifesto for England and Wales. The launch, attended by the Fisheries Minister, Mark Spencer MP, called for a more coordinated approach from the Westminster and Welsh governments to protect salmon and support their recovery.

Speaking at the launch in parliament, Mark Owen, Head of Fisheries at the Angling Trust, said … "Governments often talk about the need to protect our environment and to look after nature.

With the government’s new Environmental Improvement Plan, and with the biodiversity and water quality targets established under the Environment Act underpinning the government’s plans for nature, this manifesto sets out the actions needed to give salmon a future in the rivers of England and Wales."

The manifesto calls for a series of measures to deliver a thriving, productive, and expanding salmon angling sector, with its associated environmental, social, and economic benefits. They include:

34

A renewed focus on delivering an updated and fully funded EA Salmon Five Point Approach (a cross government plan) and NRW Salmon and Sea Trout Plan of Action with a clear timetable for action based on catchment-based delivery.

Targeted action to mitigate and allow salmon to adapt to the impact of climate change.

Greater protection in our estuaries and coastal waters from exploitation.

Greater stakeholder engagement in the management of salmon angling.

An end to restrictive byelaws and the promotion of voluntary measures.

Effective stock assessments and transparency of data.

Effective management of predation.

Tackling the scourge of aquaculture.

Effective management of all river users.

Maximise the socio-economic benefits of salmon angling.

Our vision is a thriving, healthy and expanding population of Atlantic salmon in the rivers of England and Wales with responsible agencies properly funded to support the conservation and economic benefits of rivers alive with salmon. In the months since its release, our vision is closer than ever. The Angling Trust has worked across the board to work towards progress on every one of the measures listed above.

Most notably, both the EA and NRW have begun updating their respective salmon action plans, each featuring a range of recommendations put forward within our Salmon Angling Manifesto including the reworking of stock assessments, which the EA is currently undergoing.

A CAUTIONARY NOTE

Missing Salmon Alliance The Angling Trust takes great pride in its role as a founding member of the NGO coalition known as the Missing Salmon Alliance (comprised of The Atlantic Salmon Trust, The Angling Trust, Fisheries Management Scotland, the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust, The Rivers Trust, and Fish Legal). Together with its partners, the Missing Salmon Alliance is committed to addressing the alarming decline in salmon populations observed over the past five decades.

While numerous factors may contribute to this decline, instead of mere speculation, it is imperative to gather data to pinpoint the exact causes responsible. This data will serve as the foundation for implementing effective conservation measures aimed at managing salmon populations. This is precisely why the Missing Salmon

35

Alliance has initiated a range of research projects. These include the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust's SAMARCH project and the Atlantic Salmon Trust's Moray Firth and West Coast Tracking Projects.

In 2023 some of these projects have concluded, with our member organisations working hard to analyse and publish their results. The data and insights gleaned from these diverse initiatives are consolidated within the Likely Suspect Framework, which seeks to enhance our understanding of salmon survival. From the Likely Suspects Framework, a management support tool is currently in development which will offer advice and guidance to salmon managers, enabling them to comprehensively assess risks throughout the salmon life cycle and consider various management approaches.

By uniting as organizations with a shared mission to safeguard our wild salmon, we gain the opportunity to campaign on additional initiatives and punch far above our weight where the Angling Trust alone would not be able. A recent example would be when The Missing Salmon Alliance actively participated in the Scottish Government's consultation regarding the proposals for a risk-based, spatial framework designed to manage the interaction between sea lice originating from marine finfish farms and wild salmonids in Scotland. Missing Salmon Alliance members are committed to persistently expressing their concerns through ongoing engagement with the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA). We will vigorously advocate for necessary enhancements to ensure the Likely Suspect Framework 's effectiveness and to provide greater protection for salmonids as they traverse through our coastal waters.

A CAUTIONARY NOTE

Marine Protection The narrative around salmon protection is often focused only on the freshwater stages of their lifecycle. Despite being treated as a freshwater species, salmon spend much of their lives moving along or living within our coastal waters, occupying similar habitats as commercially viable species such as bass, leaving them vulnerable to accidental capture. This is especially the case with indiscriminate methods, notably gillnetting, which have a high mortality for salmon bycatch. The Angling Trust refuses to ignore the dangers our salmon face at sea. We have been tackling this issue head-on through a variety of channels in the last year. Not only do we support pioneering research on salmon at sea through the Missing Salmon Alliance, but we also campaign directly to policymakers to influence changes in coastal protection. This has been done on a local level during recent Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Authorities (IFCA) netting byelaw reviews., and on a national level through Defra consultations. The recent Defra Bass Fishery Management Plan

36

consultation gave the Angling Trust and all recreational fishermen a unique opportunity to demand better coastal protection for at-risk migratory species such as salmon. Over the last 18 months the Angling Trust lobbied Defra hard to ensure its priorities, including a review of inshore netting practices and switching to line-based fishing methods were included within the management plan. We built upon our efforts with a campaign directed at game anglers to respond to the public consultation to ensure the oftenunderappreciated recreational stakeholders were valued equally within the decision-making process.

Looking ahead The Angling Trust will continue to fight for greater salmon protection from the open ocean to their headwater spawning grounds and will ensure that game anglers are adequately represented and valued as stakeholders in all policy making decisions.

We will continue to be an active member of the Missing Salmon Alliance, seeking funding to support actions and intervention at the catchment scale to ensure greater protection and improvement to salmon habitats. We will be working closely with both the EA and NRW as they review and renew their stock assessment approaches and their plans to improve the protection and increase the number of salmon in our rivers, both in terms of smolts leaving those rivers and adults returning to spawn.

A CAUTIONARY NOTE

"THE ANGLING TRUST REFUSES TO IGNORE THE DANGERS OUR SALMON FACE AT SEA. WE HAVE BEEN TACKLING THIS HEAD ON THROUGH A VARIETY OF CHANNELS IN THE LAST YEAR." SAM JONES SALMON ANGLER ENGAGEMENT OFFICER

37

"Anglers are at the eyes and ears for our seas.

They’re at the heart of our coastal communities"

06 SUSTAINABLE SEAS

It has been another hectic year for recreational sea angling as movements began to develop more Fisheries Management Plans (FMPs) and sea anglers had a bigger say than ever before in how our seas are managed. We continued to call for reform of inshore netting and combat threats to ban angling and bait gathering. The Angling Trust also successfully secured funding for four Fisheries Industry Science Partnerships (FISP) scheme projects to collaborate with scientists, fisheries managers, charter skippers and recreational anglers on science projects focused on recreationally important species to raise the profile of the wealth of knowledge anglers possess on our seas gained from decades at sea. Our small team had an international impact by participating in International Council Exploration of the Seas (ICES) workshops on the importance of including angler knowledge in stock assessments and data collection that can have real-world implications for both our sport and the species we love.

Across our work we promote the importance of fishing in tandem with nature and advocate for ecosystem-based fisheries management that will enable our sport, and coastal communities, to thrive now and in the future.

Since being formally recognised as a stakeholder in UK fisheries management under the Fisheries Act (2020) our community has come a long way. We now have a seat at the table and voice in the government’s ambition to create world-class fisheries – a vision we share and one that we believe recreational fishing deserves a key part in. The Angling Trust continue to lobby the government to manage fisheries for the benefit of entire coastal communities and to recognise the high social and economic value of recreational fishing across the country. We want fisheries managed to maximise these benefits and to prioritise fishing opportunities for those that bring these benefits at a low-cost to the environment.

A CAUTIONARY NOTE

Recreational sea fishing now also has access to government funding opportunities. The Angling Trust has received funding through the Fisheries and Seafood Scheme (FaSS) to support our delivery of Anglers Against Litter in the marine environment alongside the four FISP scheme projects that promote the crucial role recreational sea anglers play in learning more about recreationally important, but poorly scientifically understood, species like pollack, undulate ray and mullet. Funding was also committed to support recreational sea fishing infrastructure development to improve accessibility and sustainability of sea angling club facilities.

But while we have come far in a short time, there is still a long way to go and there is no more important time for one united voice for recreational sea anglers. Robust data continues to be a barrier to improving the recognition of our sectors value in government and we continue to push for collaborative projects that spotlight species of recreational importance and value.

We also strive for better recognition of the role sea angling plays in facilitating connections with blue spaces, benefiting participants mental and physical health, nature connectedness and ocean literacy.

39

The Angling Trust is committed to protecting fish, fishing and the environment and we need all sea anglers to come together to form a unified voice to protect the interests of our sport, the fish, and the environment upon which it depends.

No more so is this true at the local level. With inshore fisheries in England managed by the Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Authorities (IFCAs) it is vital that sea angling voices are heard, and the value of sea angling recognised. Sea anglers now have seats of the governing committee on a number of IFCAs, but we always need more to ensure the proper balance between commercial, environmental, and recreational interests.

A central fisheries management tool used by IFCAs is their use of byelaws. We have supported local anglers through a number of byelaw consultations, mostly focused on the management and restrictions of inshore netting. This, often indiscriminate and destructive fishing method can have a major impact on stocks that we want to target as sea anglers. We will continue to fight to remove netting from important migratory, spawning, and nursery grounds to protect stocks and ensure sustainable management of important stocks are implemented.

Fisheries Management Plans (FMPs)

A CAUTIONARY NOTE

Fisheries Management Plans (FMPs) represent a unique opportunity for the recreational sea angling community to influence fisheries management in domestic waters. Over 40 FMPs are due to be developed in the next few years, since the UKs departure from the European Union. For many vulnerable species in our waters there are few, if any, management measures in place or sufficient data to complete a stock assessment. This is a far cry from the UK Government’s shared ambition for “World-Class Fisheries” management. We are committed to using our voice and networks to collaboratively work toward filling these gaps and improving the state of our seas. With our newfound stakeholder status in English and Welsh fisheries management, and growing connections across international organisations, we are building our voice in the call for stronger holistic fisheries management through measures like discard reform and the implementation of Remote Electronic Monitoring. The Angling Trust is committed to ensuring we use our growing influence in the corridors of power to collaboratively achieve sustainable fisheries management that is ecosystem-based and guided by the best-available science with management measures, ensuring sea angling benefits from such measures.

40

Bass Fisheries Management Plan Since its founding more than a decade ago, the Angling Trust has campaigned for better management of the bass fishery and a fairer deal for bass anglers. Together, we have urged the government to protect juvenile and spawning bass, to phase out destructive commercial fishing methods like inshore netting, and to set catch limits within scientific advice – even accepting proportionate limits for recreational anglers in the pursuit of a recovered and sustainably manage bass stock.

As newly recognised stakeholders, recreational sea anglers have been more involved in the development of fisheries management than ever before. Over the last 18-months the Angling Trust, together with Bass Anglers Sportfishing Society (BASS), have been working hard to lobby Defra on behalf of recreational sea anglers to ensure our shared priorities are included within the Bass FMP. This includes a fair deal for recreational sea anglers accessing fishing opportunities, recognition of the socio-economic importance of big bass for angling, protections for juvenile and spawning bass, phasing out inshore netting, a crackdown on discards and illegal landings, and a deviation away from Maximum Sustainable Yield.

A CAUTIONARY While the overall direction of travel appears positive for supporting NOTE

recovery of the bass stock and phasing out environmental damaging practices like inshore netting, the Angling Trust remain dissatisfied with the pace and strength of the proposed changes. We believe that these actions do not go far enough to achieve a world-class bass fishery for all stakeholders or to protect the future of the bass population. We want to see more protections for juvenile and spawning bass, a crackdown on discards and stronger enforcement of bass regulations.

Channel Demersal Non-Quota Species Fisheries Management Plan The Angling Trust engaged with the Marine Management Organisation through the Working Group for the Channel Demersal Non-Quota Species Fisheries Management Plan and promoted a series of on-theground engagement events with stakeholders as the plan developed.

With many of the species included within this plan data-limited with minimal, if any, limits on catch within the English Channel there is clearly a lot of work to be done by government and stakeholders to achieve the shared vision of “World-Class Fisheries” and a healthy marine environment.

41

This FMP covers the following 19 species – many of which are recreationally important and valuable in the region – within ICES areas 7.e. and 7.d. (eastern and western English Channel respectively): Bony fish Bib / pouting / pout (Trisopterus luscus) Brill (Scophthalmus rhombus) Lemon sole (Microstomus kitt) Turbot (Scophthalmus maximus) John dory (Zeus faber) Red mullet / striped red mullet / surmullet (Mullus surmuletus) Grey gurnard (Eutrigla gurnardus) Red gurnard (Chelidonichthys cuculus) Tub gurnard (Chelidonichthys lucerna) Elasmobranchs Lesser spotted dogfish / lesser spotted catshark (Scyliorhinus canicula) Starry smoothhound (Mustelus asterias) Common smoothhound (Mustelus mustelus) Cephalopods

A CAUTIONARY NOTE

Common cuttlefish (Sepia officinalis) Elegant cuttlefish (Sepia elegans) Common octopus (Octopus vulgaris) Curled octopus (Eledone cirrhosa) Veined squid / Long-finned squid (Loligo forbesii) European Common squid (Alloteuthis subulata) Common squid / European squid (Loligo vulgaris) As with many Fisheries Management Plans, we responded to the public consultations on this plan and engaged in formal Working Groups with the MMO and Defra.

While the Angling Trust support implementing new and strengthening existing minimum conservation reference sizes, but we have concerns that the Minimum Conservation Reference Sizes (MCRS) included within the FMP do not meet the maturity length required to protect juvenile fish. The proposed sizes within this FMP are also not aligned with the proposed MCRS in other FMPs like the Southern North Sea and Eastern Channel Flatfish FMP. This is a major error. There must be consistency across

42

regions on MCRS to improve compliance and ease enforcement.

The Angling Trust is pushing for the following MCRS that are aligned with known maturity sizes for these species: lemon sole – 30cm, turbot – 46cm and brill – 41cm. Other species included within this FMP that are not being considered by the MMO for MCRS, we argue must still be protected and we want to see the adoption of the following MCRS: grey gurnard – 25cm, red gurnard – 28cm, tub gurnard – 30cm, John Dory – 35cm, lesser spotted dogfish – 60cm, red mullet – 24cm, pouting – 25cm, and smooth hound (all species) – 85cm.

MCRS are important to protect juvenile fish, allowing them to grow and reproduce before being harvested, to promote recovering fish populations to underpin sustainable fisheries and prevent overfishing.

For this reason, too, we also support the move to 100mm mesh size.

The roll out of Remote Electronic Monitoring is vital to strengthening monitoring, management and enforcement of these data-poor fisheries and delivering on the government’s commitment to ‘WorldClass Fisheries’. The proposed plans clearly lack ambition and do not provide sufficient coverage across the commercial fleet rapidly enough to make a real difference.

A CAUTIONARY NOTE The Angling Trust welcome voluntary guidelines and codes of

conduct to improve fish welfare and stock sustainability across recreational anglers and commercial fishers.

Ultimately, an ecosystem-based management is desperately needed across UK fisheries and a transition to fisheries being managed for the benefit of coastal communities with a recognition of the high socioeconomic value recreational sea angling delivers to these communities across the country. As all these species are non-quota there is a huge risk for them to be vulnerable to overfishing and as they are mostly data-deficient, there is very little evidence to support whether current catches are sustainable. This is a major oversight that needs to urgently be addressed.

Southern North Sea & Eastern Channel Flatfish Fisheries Management Plan The Flatfish FMP – led by Defra – applies to lemon sole, witch, turbot, brill, dab, flounder, Atlantic halibut, plaice, and sole in English waters within ICES areas 4b, 4c and 7d.

43

While there are proposed measures within the FMP that are positive, they do not go far enough. As discussed above, the Angling Trust strongly supports the implementation of minimum MCRS and a mesh size increase to 100mm to protect juvenile fish, allowing them to grow and reproduce before being harvested, to promote recovering fish populations to underpin sustainable fisheries and prevent overfishing. But the MCRS included within the Fisheries Management Plan do not meet the maturity length required to protect juvenile fish.

This is a major omission. We also stress there must be consistency across regions on MCRS to improve compliance and ease enforcement.

The Angling Trust is pushing for the following MCRS: lemon sole – 30cm, turbot – 46cm and brill – 41cm. Other species included within this FMP that are not being considered by Defra for MCRS, we argue must still be protected and we want to see the adoption of the following MCRS: witch – 30cm, dab – 25cm, flounder – 30cm, Atlantic halibut – 135cm, plaice – 35cm and sole – 35cm.

Decisive action on prohibiting destructive bottom-towed gears within Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) and removing inshore netting to reduce bycatch and protect endangered, threatened, and protected species like twaite shad is needed urgently, and “considering” to gather evidence on this, when the accompanying Strategic Environmental Assessment is clear, is not good enough.

A CAUTIONARY NOTE

We welcome the Defra proposal to review the way joint quotas are managed as the current management approach invites overfishing.

We strongly encourage Defra to adopt species level TACs that cover the entire stock distribution area in line with ICES advice. Many flatfish species lack good data and information, so steps to gather data to inform fisheries management are also welcomed. Ultimately, we want to see ecosystem-based management adopted across UK fisheries.

When the UK left the EU the government committed to delivering world-class fisheries. Actions speak louder than words and we want the government to start delivering on its promises to entire coastal communities, not just the commercial fishing industry.

"ULTIMATELY, WE WANT TO SEE ECOSYSTEM-BASED MANAGEMENT ADOPTED ACROSS UK FISHERIES. " HANNAH RUDD POLICY & ADVOCACY MANAGER

44

Fisheries Industry Science Partnerships (FISP) scheme The Angling Trust has successfully secured Defra partnership funding through FISP. We want to promote the vast knowledge and experience sea anglers hold and how our community can be stewards of our marine environment. Gathering data and evidence on the socio-economic value of sea angling to coastal communities, and on species of recreational interest is hugely important to the sustainability of our sport.

Catchwise Catchwise is a new survey of sea angling taking place across England and Wales in 2023 and 2024. The project has been codeveloped with sea anglers and aims to significantly improve the recognition of the sport’s value to coastal communities and inform relevant fisheries management decisions accurately. It is a partnership between the Angling Trust, Cefas and Substance.

Following requests through the Angling Trust’s Marine Advisory Group to ground truth the data from the Sea Angling Diary Project, the Angling Trust signed an Memorandum of Understanding with Cefas and Substance in 2021. We committed to identifying funding to carry out an on-the-ground survey of sea anglers, charter boats and private boats rather than relying on an existing computer modelling approach. Scientific models and their outputs are only as good as their data inputs.

A CAUTIONARY NOTE

Catchwise aims to be the biggest single study of sea angling undertaken for over a decade and will involve a major shore and private boat survey of sea anglers as well as an online survey of charter boats. Catchwise will involve face-to-face surveys with thousands of sea anglers around the English and Welsh coasts.

With our small team of 12 regional surveyors across England and Wales Catchwise has already completed over 1,000 surveys of anglers across the coastline from the northern reaches of Northumberland down to Penzance in southern Cornwall. The project is due for completion in late 2024.

Now that recreational sea angling has a seat at the table on local, national and international fisheries management decision-making, it is more important than ever that we collaborate with sea anglers to ensure the data collected is robust and fills data gaps on poorly understood recreationally important species.

45

Pollack FISP Recent stock assessments and observations by anglers have suggested a concerning decline in the pollack stocks and a reduction in large fish, urging local skippers and anglers to take action by instigating collaboration with scientists to ensure its sustainable use and to better understand the population.

Led by the University of Plymouth in collaboration with the Professional Boatman’s Association (PBA), the Angling Trust, and the University of York, with support from Cefas, we aim to leverage the importance of recreational knowledge and safeguard the future of this important fish.

There are 3 main aims of the project: In collaboration with the PBA, a consortium of skippers totalling 10 boats will collect data on catch per unit effort, length, frequency, size, and age across the English Channel.

Researchers from the University of Plymouth will work with the same skippers to tag and track the movements and habitat use of pollack via acoustic telemetry around the south-west.

The knowledge of recreational anglers and skippers in fisheries management is often poorly recognised. Through this project anglers and skippers will be interviewed by scientists from the University of York to identify common concerns and collaborate on fisheries management recommendations.

A CAUTIONARY NOTE

Pollack FISP has already achieved a huge amount since the project began, with over 8,000 catch records across the skipper consortium, more than 80 pairs of otoliths (fish ear bones) collected and almost 100 pollack acoustically tagged in the south-west of England. This vital data, made possible through collaborating with recreational anglers and charter skippers, will improve scientific knowledge on this poorly understood fish and better inform future stock assessments and fisheries management for the species. The project will also hold a series of workshops and interviews with stakeholders to gather their views on potential management measures to support the sustainability of the stock and collaborative management with stakeholders.

The project is due to complete in early 2025.

Angling for Sustainability Angling for Sustainability is a partnership comprising of the Angling Trust, Professional Boatman’s Association, Southern IFCA and

46

Natural England, led by the University of Plymouth. It is another example of research made possible by working in collaboration with local skippers and recreational anglers. The research focuses on four species: black bream, tope, starry smooth-hound and undulate ray.

These species are also poorly understood, but recreationally important species.

The project’s objectives are twofold: Firstly, it will investigate the nesting site fidelity, habitat use, fisheries interactions, and wider migration patterns of black bream in Dorset.

Secondly, it will focus on studying the habitat use, migration patterns, and site fidelity of elasmobranch species like tope, starry smooth-hound, and undulate ray in the Solent area.

By collaborating with recreational anglers and skippers the team aim to acoustically tag 200 black bream around Dorset and 50 elasmobranchs around the Solent, with great progress made toward these goals this year.

A CAUTIONARY NOTE

In 2023 we held three successful workshops – Poole, Weymouth, and Southsea – with great enthusiasm and questions from local angling and charter boat communities. Looking ahead, we plan to continue tagging these species and to host more workshops to share knowledge the recreational sector and to update the community of the projects findings so far.

The project is due to complete in early 2025.

FinVision Led by the University of Plymouth, project partners include stakeholders across the recreational angling and fisheries management, including the Angling Trust, Bass Anglers Sportfishing Society (BASS), National Mullet Club (NMC), Association of IFCAs, Southern IFCA, and Institute of Fisheries Management (IFM).

FinVision will deploy underwater cameras in key habitats within three estuaries – Fal/Helford, Tamar, and Fleet – to learn more about the preferred habitat of recreationally important species, like bass and grey mullet, during their juvenile life stages. By using new technology - called the Juvenile Habitat Monitoring Camera (JHaM-Cam) - we will be able to film the smallest juvenile life-stages of fish and measure their abundance and size in the wild.

47

Understanding these early life stages and their habitat use are vital for the future of the fishery and ensuring healthy, sustainable stocks of these recreationally important species. With the ability of anglers to be citizen scientists through an online platform and a series of online workshops on fish ID, alongside assisting with juvenile fish surveys, FinVision offers a unique opportunity for anglers to learn from scientists about their local marine environment underneath the waves.

This project is yet another example of the value of collaborations with the recreational angling sector to advance our knowledge and understanding of recreationally important species and the environment they depend on to improve the future of our sport and sustainable fisheries.

The project is due to complete in early 2025.

CHART and progress toward a Catch-and-Release Atlantic Bluefin Tuna Fishery 2023 saw the third year of the bluefin tuna tag and release programme, CHART, allowing anglers to experience catch and release bluefin tuna fishing in UK waters. As with previous years, the Angling Trust has supported this programme as a prelude to the opening of a full catch and release fishery for this magnificent fish.

A CAUTIONARY NOTE

While the 2023 season is still only part way through (at the time of publication) anglers and charter boat skippers have, once again, shown how successful this fishery can be. Successful in terms of demonstration and skills and agility needed to catch these fish, successful in terms of the knowledge and expertise charter boat skippers in the programme are able to demonstrate, and successful in delivering high welfare standards to protect the fish and ensure they are released safely and unharmed. CEFAS report that the mortality rate from the programme continues to improve with them estimating it is as low as 0.6% this year.

But the big prize is the opening up of a recreational fishery. Working with the UK Bluefin Tuna Association and the PBA, we have secured a commitment from the government to do so in time for the 2024 season.

During this year we have been working closely with Defra on what a recreational catch and release fishery will look like, how it will work, and how it will be managed. This led to a public consultation over the summer of 2023, which resulted in a larger number of responses,

48

mostly from sea anglers, and a lot of support. We are continuing to work with Defra on the detail, now the consultation has closed.

A recreational fishery will operate under the rules set out by the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT). This means, for the first time for sea angling, it will be a licenced fishery. Skippers, whether of charter boats or private boats, will have to hold a licence and be able to show a level of skill and knowledge before they can take anglers fishing for bluefin. In designing this fishery, the Angling Trust has set out four things that we think are vital to make it a success: Ensure more boats and anglers are able to benefit from the fishery.

There is a robust structure for managing the fishery, enforcing the rules, and preventing illegal fishing.

That licences are fair, and if there are charges, they are reasonable, with any monies generated being reinvested in the fishery. And if you have to pay for a recreational licence then you

A CAUTIONARY NOTE

should have to pay for a commercial fishing licence too.

In the future, the allocation of quota should both protect the sustainability of the fishery and favour the recreational fishery as it will provide greater value.

Looking ahead Enabling more anglers to experience the majesty and excitement of catching a bluefin tuna in our home waters is something we have long aspired to achieve. We will be focusing on ensuring that 2024 marks the first of many future years where anglers can catch bluefin.

We support the fact this will be a licenced and controlled fishery and will continue to push Defra to ensure it is not too onerous in terms of the licence conditions and level of skill needed. While making sure the sustainability of the fishery and the welfare of the fish is a priority, we think this is an exciting opportunity to get more people fishing and to deliver huge economic benefits to coastal communities. The value of a catch release fishery is far greater than a commercial fishery.

While we are not opposed to a limited commercial fishery for bluefin tuna, we were disappointed that Defra introduced a small-scale

49

pilot fishery in 2023. This was done with little or no consultation and with no preparation for how the fishery will operate. Consequently, those fish that are landed for sale are of poor quality and little value.

We will be working to ensure the government learn lessons from this rushed pilot, and as importantly, as the amount of tuna available to catch via the quota awarded by ICCAT increases, that the recreational sector benefits given the greater economic and social value it delivers.

Highly Protected Marine Areas (HMPAs) & Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) Following nearly two years of representations led by the Angling Trust with the support of local angling stakeholders, the government announced earlier this year that two of their proposed HPMAs where recreational angling would have been banned have been dropped – Lindisfarne and Inner Silver Pit South. The sites that survived consultation include Allonby Bay, Dolphin Head and North Farnes Deep which were designated in July 2023.

HPMAs will effectively be ‘no-take’ zones for fishing activity – both recreational and commercial, including bait digging within inshore sites. The selected pilot sites cover a mixture of marine habitats and include important breeding and nursery grounds for recreationally and commercially important species. While the two offshore sites – Dolphin Head and North Farnes Deep – are far offshore and unlikely to be used by recreational anglers frequently, the Angling Trust particularly holds concerns regarding the designated inshore site – Allonby Bay.

A CAUTIONARY NOTE

Whilst these boundary revisions to accommodate recreational angling are welcome, they do not go far enough to support recreational sea angling which is an important economic driver for local coastal communities and integral to participant’s mental and physical wellbeing. The Angling Trust do not believe the government have sufficient evidence to ban recreational angling within these sites and we continue to fight on behalf of angling.

We remain supportive of more action to protect our marine environment. More is needed to ensure the existing network of Marine Conservation Zones and properly managed and restriction for things such as bottom trawling and other destructive activities are properly enforced. HPMAs could be a part of this picture, but they need proper local community engagement when being established, to ensure they are in the right place, have local ownership, and deliver the protection needed. This has not been the case so far, and we will continue to lobby Defra to make

50

improvement to the process of establishing HPMAs. The Angling Trust welcomes steps to recover our marine environment, but we strongly encourage the government to adopt a collaborative co-design and co-management approach to highly protected marine areas that involves the local community.

There will be more HPMAs proposed and designated around the country in the future and the Angling Trust wants to set the precedent that recreational sea angling is part of the solution, not the problem.

Looking Ahead It is no secret that our marine environment is in trouble. From localised sewage pollution and plastic littering to large-scale threats like climate change and overfishing, our seas are in desperate need of a helping hand. For recreational sea angling to thrive now and in the future, we need a healthy marine environment and as sea anglers we are eager to play our part in securing our seas sustainable future.

That’s why in 2024 we’re stepping up even more.

With our newfound stakeholder status and bigger voice in Westminster we will be fighter harder for sustainable seas and ecosystem-based management. In 2024/25 there will be more FMPs focused on recreationally important species, such as skates & rays, black bream, and wrasse (spp.) that will offer opportunities for our community to push for more parity, ecosystem-based management, and stronger protections for these species during their most vulnerable life stages by phasing out environmentally destructive fishing methods like bottom-trawling.

A CAUTIONARY NOTE

In the coming year we also have ambitious plans for a collaborative stakeholder-wide gillnetting campaign that aims to ban this destructive fishing method within 6 miles of the English coastline.

Gillnets pose a significant threat to marine life from cetaceans to migratory fishes, many of which are threatened with extinction and desperately need our help.

Recreational sea angling plays a vital role in our forgotten coastal communities across the country. The Angling Trust will launch a new campaign focused on Fishing for Good to promote the mental and physical wellbeing, and nature connectedness benefits that our sport can offer. Being an environmentally friendlier form of fishing that can spark a life-long fascination with our seas, we believe sea angling to be the perfect introduction for the next generation of marine stewards.

Sea angling also contributes hugely to local and

51

national economies, and can be a vital lifeline for many businesses operating within coastal communities throughout the country.

Whether a local tackle shop, a charter boat business, a sea angling guide, or the vast number of local businesses that benefit indirectly from sea angling tourism, we will push for greater socio-economic recognition by government of the benefits sea angling delivers to our communities.

We want our sport to be sustainable and to do our bit for sustainable seas. We’ll be working with sea anglers, sea angling clubs and skippers across the country to develop and promote both bestpractice handling guides for catch-and-releasing but also guidelines for catch-and-keep so that however anglers choose to fish they are equipped with the knowledge on how to fish in tandem with nature.

Pulling together our vision and ambitions for sea angling and sustainable seas is our Sea Angling Manifesto which will be launched in winter 2023 and act as the guide for our working across the next 12months and beyond.

"FOR RECREATIONAL SEA A CAUTIONARY A N G L I N G T O T H R I V E N O W NOTE AND IN THE FUTURE, WE NEED A HEALTHY MARINE ENVIRONMENT. AS SEA ANGLERS WE ARE EAGER TO PLAY OUR PART IN SECURING OUR SEAS SUSTAINABLE FUTURE. THAT’S WHY IN 2024 WE’RE STEPPING UP EVEN MORE. " STUART SINGLETON-WHITE HEAD OF CAMPAIGNS

52

"I would like to say a big thank you to the Angling Trust and wholeheartedly recommend any angling club to join as the support they provide is amazing"

07 FIGHTING YOUR CORNER

Alongside the national campaigns such as Anglers Against Pollution, Anglers Against Litter, and Love Fishing Love Nature, and the work on salmon, invasive species and protecting marine habitats we also support Angling Trust members on local campaigns. These cover an array of issues such as development planning, conflicts with other water users, parking and access, disputes over leases and licences or the withdrawal of fishing rights. We provide advice, which often requires us to work closely with our Angling Trust colleagues from Participation, Enforcement, Fisheries Management, the Environment Team and Fish Legal, and sometimes intervene on our members behalf. We leverage all the knowledge and experience within the Angling Trust and our status as the national governing body for angling enabling us to achieve better outcomes for fish, fishing, and the environment at both the national and the local level.

This year we have supported over 30 angling clubs and individual members with local issues and submitted objections to two planning developments on behalf of member angling clubs.

Here are a few of examples the illustrate the types of local campaigning we get involved in.

Rochdale Walton Angling Society

A CAUTIONARY NOTE

Founded in 1858 Rochdale Walton Angling Club are a progressive small angling club based in the Northeast with coarse fishing on three local urban stillwaters and the local canal. Since covid they have grown to over 295 members and have formed an amazing link with the Exservice personal from the Rochdale area. They have purchased a welfare unit, toilets and had pegs designed for disabled / wheelchair anglers. The club runs regular family days and kids fishing sessions.

Unfortunately, one of their lakes was blighted by anti-social behaviour, alcoholism and drug taking, littering, fire setting, poaching, vandalism and criminal damage. Members often found the venue littered with drug paraphernalia and empty bottles and started avoiding the venue, on some cases it was triggering PTSD in ex service personnel, and it was causing the club officials a great deal of stress.

The club approached their landlord, the local council, with a proposal to fence of the lake and proceeded with an extensive programme of community engagement and consultation to find the optimum solution which the club funded from their own reserves. Unfortunately no sooner had the fence been erected and the issues addressed the landlord wrote to the club instructing them to take down the fence, erven though they had all the permissions in place ahead of the work. The club were clearly very distressed and approached the Angling Trust and Fish Legal for support.

54

Working with colleagues from Enforcement and with Fish Legal we wrote to the local council on the club’s behalf compelling them to see sense and to withdraw their instruction to take down the fence. The matter is ongoing, but we continue to support the club with advice on local campaigning and highlighting their challenges through social media and our Lines On The Water blog.

Clumber Park Carved out of the ancient forest of Sherwood, Clumber Park is a beautiful expanse of parkland, heath and woods covering more than 3,800 acres. Formerly the country estate of the Dukes of Newcastle the National Trust now manages the site offering visitors the …“freedom to discover a ducal park. Explore picturesque parkland and gardens, peaceful woodlands, and a magnificent lake. Not only is Clumber's mosaic of habitats home to an amazing array of wildlife, it is also a great place to spot it”.

The National Trust offered day ticket fishing on the estate lake at Clumber Park but after covid whilst the park reopened the fishing did not. The Angling Trust was contacted by a number of members who were concerned about the situation.

A CAUTIONARY NOTE

Whilst the National Trust has an overall strategy for angling, which broadly “welcomes angling where it does not compromise the National Trust objectives for nature, climate and other public benefit and provides an angling experience which is in keeping with our places and their other values (i.e. a wild fishing experience in unique locations rather than intensively managed commercial fisheries)”, decisions are made locally on actual provision so we contacted the management team at Clumber Park asking to meet.

The National Trust Team at Clumber Park took us up on the invitation and members of the Campaigns Team and Participation Team met at Clumber Park to discuss the current situation and to explore opportunities to bring angling back to Clumber Park.

It was apparent that the National Trust team at Clumber Park lacked post covid the resource to be able to manage an angling offering. We suggested that they outsource the

55

angling offering to either a local club or syndicate who would manage it on the National Trust’s behalf. Working with the National Trust we helped formulate an ‘expression of interest’ whilst promoting the tendering process to local angling clubs and other interested parties.

Clumber Park have now identified a new partner and angling has returned to the old estate lake. A win/win/win for the National Trust, the Angling Trust, and local anglers, and a great example of how collaboration can resolve issues for riparian owners, leaseholders, and anglers.

River Ray In the 1970s, 2003, 2022 and again in 2023 burst Thames Water main sewers seriously polluted the River Ray near Swindon in Wiltshire.

These catastrophic pollution incidents wiped out fish and invertebrate life on the Ray below the confluence with the Haydon Brook and even impacted the Thames below where the Ray joins it. The South Cerney Angling Club, who own fishing rights on the Ray, had worked tirelessly since the incidents in the 1970s and in 2003 to restore the river and it had recovered to become a popular fishery, holding good stocks of roach, dace, chub, and perch with the occasional barbel.

A CAUTIONARY NOTE

Dan Garner, Fisheries Officer for South Cerney Angling Club said …

“There are no words to express how devastating this is to us at South Cerney Angling Club. This has now been the fourth serious pollution incident and the second sewage spillage since August last year. I can see no end to this problem until Thames Water have stepped up and renewed their failing infrastructure in question. Not only have they wiped out our section of the River Ray but it has also impacted fish stocks on our River Thames sections lower down.”

After the 2022 pollution incident the Angling Trust pressed Thames Water to commit to a full review of their sewerage infrastructure in the Swindon area as there were fears that further pollution incidents were likely given the poor condition of the rising main. In October 2022 Thames Water were still not prepared to commit to replacing the 3.2km section of pipeline but after the 2023 incident, and as a result of further pressure from the Angling Trust, Thames Water are now pledging to have a new rising main installed and fully operational by the middle of 2024. Following the 2023 incident the Angling Trust negotiated substantial compensation on behalf of the two local angling clubs to cover restocking and river restoration works.

56

As well as criticising Thames Water for their failure to protect the River Ray, the Angling Trust continues to highlight the failure of the water industry regulator OFWAT to approve adequate investment in the UK’s wastewater infrastructure with replacement rates for sewerage pipes operating on an absurd life expectancy of 2,000 years. With other similar pollution incidents becoming more common, as sewerage systems break down through neglect and old age, Angling Trust CEO Jamie Cook wrote to Thames Water boss Sarah Bentley to ask for the publication of a full audit of the water company’s most vulnerable sewerage infrastructure.

In his letter Jamie Cook said … “I’m pleased to hear that you are now pledging to have a new rising main installed later this year and fully operational by the middle of 2024. This of course begs a number of questions. Why has it taken so long and a second pollution for you to decide to replace infrastructure that was demonstrably, and catastrophically, so obviously unfit for purpose? We then have to ask what reassurance can you offer that there are not other parts of your wastewater infrastructure in a similarly deplorable condition and likely to pollute other waterways?”

Securing funding from Defra to support sea angling infrastructure improvement

A CAUTIONARY As part of the Fisheries Act (2020) the government committedNOTE to funding the support and development of recreational sea fishing, alongside the commercial fishing sector. This was recognition of the economic and social contribution recreational fishing makes, particularly to coastal communities. Initially, this funding was lumped together into a number of thematic areas that were open to both recreational and commercial fishing sectors. This made it hard for local angling clubs to access the funds needed to improve their facilities and improve access for angling.

We successfully lobbied government to create a fund specifically for recreational sea fishing. They did, and through that fund a number of local clubs and organisations have secured funding. Here are three examples of how that money is being used to improve our angling experience.

Shoreham Port were awarded over £24,000 to fund the construction of an access path that will connect a car park to the Western Harbour Arm, a popular location for recreational fishing with the access path allowing better access for the public, providing disabled users a safe route to the harbour arms. It also hopes to promote the sport of recreational fishing by increasing the volume of people able to access the harbour arms.

57

Southport Boat Angling Club were also awarded just under £30,000 as part of a project to build their own club house and storage facility. The construction will provide tractor storage, a workshop area, a training room, a kitchenette toilet and changing facilities in order to promote the sport and offer benefits for the community by providing a purpose-built space that can host open events and facilitate training.

Wigtown Bay Coastal Rowing Club were awarded £100,000 to build a boatshed that will enable recreational anglers to maintain and repair their boats, as well as provide access to showers, toilets, and changing facilities. It’s hoped this project will contribute to boosting coastal tourism by providing a space for the community to engage with recreational angling and increase the number of participants of the sport through the construction of new facilities, including improved access for disabled users.

A CAUTIONARY Reg Phillips, a local angler from Shoreham and Angling Trust Marine NOTE Advisory Group member said … “Sea anglers of my generation often

find it difficult to walk up and down steep shingle beaches carrying lots of heavy fishing tackle, so they prefer to visit angling venues that are better suited to their needs. Shoreham Harbour outer arms are very popular venues for sea anglers as anglers get to fish into deeper water than they would from the local beaches.

Access to Shoreham West Arm is via the carpark, then up a steep shingle slope and then down onto loose uneven shingle before reaching the concrete path onto the arm. It is a hinderance that can prevent anglers with disabilities from visiting the venue and impossible to navigate for wheelchair bound anglers. I thank Shoreham Port and especially the Harbour Master, Julian Seaman, for listening to anglers and for their commitment to provide safe access for the angling community.

I hope this can encourage other sea angling clubs, harbour authorities, marinas, and ports across the country to submit bids for this new government funding scheme. Thank you to Hannah Rudd and the Angling Trust for pushing government hard to provide this new funding for sea angling infrastructure.”

58