Wildlife champion

Why Feargal Sharkey thinks brown trout are hard to beat

Why are wild brown trout so hard to beat?

They’re beautiful fish! All populations look unique. Go three miles upstream and the trout might have completely different markings. It’s that classic Darwinian thing: their camouf lage is best suited to their local environment. Only the fittest and most competitive should ever spawn and reproduce. Brown trout are among the great survivors of the modern world.

So, these fish don’t travel far?

Oh, they do. I’ve been talking to scientists studying their genome all over northern Europe, as far away as Iceland and the Faroes. Some brown trout have a hidden genetic switch, where, for some strange reason, they suddenly start to behave like salmon. They will swim down a river into the North Atlantic, feast on sand eels and any amount of other food then, like salmon, swim back to the river where they hatched to spawn.

When did you start fishing?

I’ve always loved f ly-fishing. Growing up in Derry, and spending a lot of time in Donegal, that was not at all unusual. Trout and salmon fishing were common workingclass pursuits… so it’s something I developed a passion for quite early on.

Even when on tour, you’d still find time to fish?

Yes! I’d be standing in a boat or maybe wading in a river somewhere, with 3m of carbon fibre around my head.

Growing up in Derry, trout and salmon fishing were common working-class pursuits.

From pop star to river conservationist… how did that come about?

I’m a member of the Amwell Magna Fishery, the oldest angling club in the country. It’s based on the River Lea in Hertfordshire, and there was an issue with water levels, so I began talking with the local water company and Environment Agency. One thing led to another, and now I’m fighting to save our chalk streams.

What makes chalk streams so special?

Chalk streams exist because of [events] about 100 million years ago, which created a layer of chalk through south and southeast England. That chalk is the best water filter on the planet. The perfectly clear water that comes out of this chalk aquifer should, in theory, be a constant 10°C, even when there’s 3m of snow! The chalk stream should also, in theory, be unadulterated by heavy f loods and storms, with a constant rate of f low. These things create an incredibly vibrant, healthy environment… the most phenomenal freshwater ecosystem in the world. If you’re an invertebrate, it’s a five-star hotel with a three-star Michelin restaurant.

Why are they in danger?

Water companies want this pristine water, which is right on the edge of England’s major population centre. So, the water industry is exploiting the chalk aquifer as much as it can. But it’s a national problem. As of 2016, just 14 per cent of English rivers had good ecological status. In 2018, sewage was dumped into rivers in England on 146,930 separate occasions. These are Environment Agency numbers. The reality is that nearly half of England’s rivers have not been monitored at all.

FEARGAL SHARKEY shot to fame in the 1970s and 80s as lead singer of The Undertones. He is a keen angler and river conservationist.