RIVER TEES SALMON CRISIS
The Atlantic salmon has a life cycle which is still not fully understood and which remains one of nature's marvels. After starting as a fertilised egg in the upper reaches and tributaries of the Tees, a salmon fry emerges, and turning from fry to salmon parr the salmon is on its way. The parr venture into deeper water, and are recognised by the "finger marks" on their sides. They remain in fresh water for between one and three years, slowly migrating downstream, until in the late spring nearing the sea they turn into very small salmon, called "smolts". Once in the North Sea the smolts feed avidly on crustaceans and small fish, growing from a few ounces in weight to, on average, 3lbs in 12 months, 8lbs in 24 months, and 12 lbs in 36 months. The larger fish will have travelled to Norway, and some to Greenland. They face many dangers through all of these stages, predation from other fish, birds, otters, seals, and trawlermen and netsmen, death and disease from pollution and the effects of overfishing of their natural food sources. However despite everything many survive to follow an ancient instinct which leads them back to the river of their birth as beautiful, strong, silver, salmon, eager to swim back up the Tees to spawn, thus creating a new generation of salmon for the future. Anyone who has stopped by the Tees Barrage, and other places on the river, and seen the salmon leaping will know what a glorious and exciting sight that is. The Tees was one of the best salmon rivers in the country until the early 1900s, but now lags far behind the Tyne, as its nearest rival.
Why? It is blamed on poor water quality in the tidal reaches of the Tees, which the responsible bodies will not deal with properly, but the real and main culprit is the presence of the Tees Barrage. Don't get us wrong; we think the Barrage is an excellent asset to Teesside, the problem lies in the fact that 15 years ago or so when the Barrage was built, and against the strong reservations and objections of the Salmon and Trout Association, and others, at consultation stage, a fish pass, which is loosely described as a Denil type, even though it is simply a concrete channel, with a fish trap, on the North side of the Barrage, was constructed leading from the tidal water to the fresh water above the Barrage. That fish pass has consistently failed to comply with the law (the Salmon and Fresh Water Fisheries Act and the Environment Act) which requires that there must be free and unobstructed passage of all fish for 24 hours of every day.
The Barrage is now owned by the British Waterways Board, (BWB) and it is the Environment Agency (EA) which has had responsibility for the giving or refusing of fish pass approval since 1995. The EA,under pressure, accepted that the fish pass was defective and gave BWB 90 days to put it right. BWB applied for relief from the Courts and agreement was reached for a 3 year survey to be carried out by CeFas for BWB to assess the effectiveness or otherwise of the fish pass. The survey started in April 2008 and the first report in April 2009 revealed that not a single salmon had successfully navigated the fish pass. BWB have only just released the results of year 2 which reveal, surprise, surprise, exactly the same result. Irritatingly this was the same result as that in a survey in 2001.
For 15 years BWB and their predecessors have been breaking the law, with the tacit collusion of EA. This has been proved in 2001 and again over the last 2 years, but still
neither of these political bodies seem able or willing to, in the one case accept that the fish pass is illegal, and replace it with one that complies with the law, and in the other case to bite the bullet, revoke the provisional fish pass approval, and take action to ensure that a legal fish pass is put in place. If we the general publics were to take such a cavalier attitude to the law we would expect to be required to comply or be severely punished. Yet these political bodies seem capable of endless procrastination, and to be above the law.
In the meantime the salmon are trying to do what comes naturally to them, that is access the River Tees and complete their life cycle. How long will bureaucracy be allowed to penalise these wonderful fish.
The seals are masking the most of the ineptitude of BWB and EA. They wait at the barrage and slaughter the trapped salmon, mostly for fun, not only for food. We having nothing against seals, or any other natural predator, because they and salmon have co-existed along the Tees estuary for centuries, but it must be unfair that the poor salmon is prevented from having an equal chance of survival because of a man made obstruction which could be alleviated by BWB spending a relatively small sum of money in replacing the fish pass with one that works "24/7". That expenditure should be compared to the vast sums which are proved to be generated by the presence of unimpeded salmon runs, as evidenced at a local level by the Rivers Tyne and Tweed, money which would benefit the whole of Teesside, and create much needed employment.
What happens next? Well the fear is that the development of the canoe slalom which includes 2 new additional fish passes will allow the BWB and EA to delay matters even further whilst they test over more years whether the new fish passes make any difference. We say the new fish passes will not be a solution, as the canoe slalom is not open 24/7, and do not address the fact that the original pass is useless, must by law be replaced, and not bypassed or ignored. If it is replaced properly, only then can 24/7 passage of salmon, smolts and adult be guaranteed for the future; it can not be achieved by further half measures. There has been little or no consultation, or proper assessment of the environmental impact of the slalom development, and whilst that undoubtedly is a great asset to the area, it must not be so at the expense, once again, of the future of the Tees salmon.
Help us to help the salmon run again in the Tees to the benefit of everyone, now and in the future by writing to the EA, your local M.P. and to the press as the stronger the region's voice the more likely something will happen and we will not still be in this disgraceful position 10 years from now.
Jeremy Spooner Chair SATA Cleveland Branch
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