Sharkey letting fly over threat to fish

FORMER lead singer of the Undertones, Feargal Sharkey, has become an unlikely eco warrior – championing the cause of Britain’s endangered chalk streams.

The Derryman, a keen fly fisherman all his life, was spotted about a fortnight ago on the River Lea in Hertfordshire standing in water along with a group of other men, frantically attempting to rescue a fish.

They were all members of the oldest fly-fishing club in England, and Sharkey was alarmed to find that the chalk stream had almost completely dried up, imperilling the brown trout for which his club has sustainably fished for two centuries.

‘Two weeks ago we learned that the upper part of the Lea was flowing at 47% of its long-term average,’ the rocker-turned-country gent says. ‘That means half the river is missing right now. In essence, the river has gone into intensive care.’

Sharkey, now 61, has been campaigning for years to save the plight of Britain’s 224 chalk streams, which some compare to the Amazon rainforests, they are so integral to his adopted home’s eco system.

‘In a word, the state of them is catastrophic,’ he says, with real anger. ‘There is not a single chalk stream that is not suffering from extensive environmental damage. Even the River Test in Hampshire, perhaps the most famous chalk stream in the world, is under threat. And even if the water does go back into them, then it will take years or decades for their ecosystems to fully recover.’

He blames the water companies for siphoning off too much water. Time to call in Greta Thunberg?