Hurry up or those otters will have eaten all our fish!
AS A child, in pre-commercial days, I could see no reason for stopping fishing for three months in the summer, but back then my opinion counted for nothing.
In 1993/4 commercial lake numbers rose steadily and the Environment Agency paid a lot of money to several wise men to investigate doing away with the closed season. They said they could see no reason to continue with it on lakes, but maintained there was not enough scientific evidence to decide the issue on canals, and even less evidence for rivers.
Consequently, in 1995 the ban on lakes and ponds was lifted. People in charge of canals could try it if they wanted to, but the ban remained on rivers. Now aged 40, my opinion still counted for nothing.
Five years later, more wise men decided that there was evidence from the few canals that had lifted the ban that it made no difference to fish health or numbers, but they could not provide scientific evidence to support lifting the ban on rivers.
Now the EA has apparently got its scientific evidence and wants people’s opinions. What it should have done, back in 1995, was look at the fishing in Ireland, where no ban was in place, and see that it had
no detrimental effect on the rivers or fish stocks.
There’s a slim chance that this time the ban will be lifted, but it is too little too late. Soon we will probably see fish stocks in the UK’s rivers decimated by otters.
When the EA finally gets around to lifting the closed season, those of us who campaigned for its abolition will likely be sat on the river bank, watching otters play and wondering why the ban wasn’t lifted years ago.