Thames salmon?

[smigel]

For some reason I just surfed into this link:-

www.environment-agency.gov.uk/commondata/acrobat/2005activities_1372051.pdf

which is a couple of years out of date. It doesn't paint a good picture if you are a Thames salmon angler.

I understand that they were actively fished for in the 1990s, my ex-boss' brother apparently caught more than one. I also understand that a lot of money went into the exercise (good PR having salmon swim past the Houses of Parliament, I guess)

Does anyone know what the very recent history is?

[pond321]

I have a mate who works for CEFAS, and he has a mate who works for the EA. Apparently, the EA guy caught several salmon a few years ago from the Thames. They get trapped at certain weirpools on the way up, so if you know roughly where/when to fish, you could catch them. However, it is unlikely that they were able to spawn, so there are probably no longer any fish running the river.

Cheers

Jon

[flybox]

Having spent a fortune on releasing salmon in the river, they were too tight to remove some major weirs by putting in fish passes. So apparently returning salmon (of which there were many) had to be scooped up and transferred upstream by road.

Released salmon were all marked. In the catching-up exercise they only ever found pre-released salmon; never home-grown ones.

[builnacraig]

[quote I also understand that a lot of money went into the exercise (good PR having salmon swim past the Houses of Parliament, I guess)

Does anyone know what the very recent history is?
[/quote]

I was at a conference last year where there were several presentations etc on the improving salmon runs in the Tyne, Taff, and even in the Mersey!. At the end of the session one of the audience made the point that if the conference had been held ten years ago all the talk would have been about the return of salmon to the Thames. He then asked what had gone wrong.
If I remember correctly the main reasons were low summer flows, and poor estuary water quality.

In other words it ain't a salmon river!

Brian

[flybox]

>>In other words it ain't a salmon river!


It used to be 200 years ago.

[builnacraig]

flybox said:

>>

It used to be 200 years ago.

Agreed. Take away the urban sprawl, open up the culverted water courses, stop water abstraction, knock down the weirs and restore the estuary and the Thames could be a salmon river again.

Can you tell me where is the nearest neighbouring river with a viable run of salmon. Fortunately I live in Scotland, the land of the salmon, so my knowledge of the rivers of the south east of England is poor.

[flybox]

The Test?

::sticks neck out::