Help The Recovery of the Wye Salmon

Save Our Salmon

Save our Salmon In May Trout & Salmon launched Save Our Salmon – a campaign that seeks to highlight the plight of the wild Atlantic salmon and raise funds to return the species to abundance. Last month they invited interested parties to pitch ideas that they believe would help  reach that goal. They have received many proposals for funds, the best eight of which are  published  on their website. WSA believes all the pitches are deserving. However of particular interest to us is Pitch 1, submitted by the organisation ‘Campaign for the Protection of Welsh Fisheries [CPWF]’. They seek funding ‘to appoint an independent scientist to assess evidence used by Natural Resources Wales to justify its decision to close hatcheries’. If they are successful in their bid for funding the outcome should be a clear and measured statement that the quoted documents do not provide such proof. Allowing CPWF and WSA to move forward in our attempts to overturn the NRW decision. We ask you to go to the campaign site at;  http://www.saveoursalmon.org/ and vote for Pitch 1 by completing the form on the 'vote now' page.

More Updates

Little progress has been made with NRW in respect to them reviewing their decision to close hatcheries. Indeed, it now seems likely the Environment Agency, responsible for rivers in England, will make a similar ruling shortly.

In light of this, we have decided to publicise an internal document [see link below] produced by Environment Agency Wales the predecessor of NRW, which strongly supported the need for hatcheries. The advice laid out in this document, contradicts NRW’s current position on hatcheries. However, it was produced by the same scientific officer, on whose advice, NRW based its decision to ban hatcheries.

Our interpretation of this memo is, the recent decision by the NRW Board to ban hatcheries was not based on science rather, it was political and economic. This memo is evidence NRW have simply interpreted the science to support their own political objectives. 

We therefore urge you to write to Prof. Peter Matthews Chairman of the NRW Board and request he explain why such contradictory advice was produced by the same scientific officer and, whether this earlier advice was also brought to the attention of and, considered by the NRW Board.

The Chairman of the NRW Board can be contacted at:

Natural Resources Wales

Ty Cambria

29 Newport Rd

Cardiff

CF24 0TP

We do please urge you to write and challenge this political interference in our river.

https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=FF816E75C9D6E510!340&authkey=!AL4als-20VT_afU&ithint=file%2cdoc

Help the Recovery of the Wye Salmon

Our letter to NRW, copied to their Chairman & CEO along with Head of Inland Fisheries at WAG seems to have had desired effect and on 23^rd March we received a  formal response  to our stocking proposal and questions we raised when we met on 15^th Jan. This can be seen at:

https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=FF816E75C9D6E510!334&authkey=!AJmdAAovy80W7YA&ithint=file%2cdocx

In summary a rejection of our proposal!

Dissatisfied with, and still not fully understanding the logic and evidence base behind their position we have prepared a series of questions and points of issue. These can be seen at:

https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=FF816E75C9D6E510!336&authkey=!AI7dKpwuVRA2Efs&ithint=file%2cdocx

We are not prepared to accept this situation and are now planning and pursuing a number of alternative tactics, these we will communicate the results of with you shortly.

Meeting with EA

‘We met with representatives of EA [Midlands] Fisheries Division on 25^th February in Hereford to present our proposals and explore opportunities to continue stocking in English area of Wye catchment.  A useful meeting with lots of information provided by EA staff but non committal on their support for or approval of our proposals. The key issue appeared to be the ability to deliver a plan that met their genetic protocol and as a result the relevant parameters of the Habitat Directive. We were advised to expect EA to carry out a review their position on stocking sometime soon!  The meeting concluded with an agreement for EA to supply a copy of the relevant protocols allowing a  submission by us of  an outline plan of our proposals for their consideration. We are now in the process of preparing a draft of this, expected to be complete by mid March. Subsequent to the meeting we were informed EA were indeed carrying out a review of their stocking policy due to be published in a few months.

We still await a formal response to our submission to NRW. A brief telecon has informed us they do not anticipate changing their decision. However we have now formally written to Prof. Peter Matthews  [Chairman of NRW Board] and Dr. Emyr Roberts [CEO of NRW] advising them of the situation and whilst awaiting their response have been informed to expect a considered response next week [we 20-March]’

News Update

It is now a month since our meeting with NRW and we still await a response to our submission and questions. We have pursued these but still have no firm dates. This seems inconsistent with their [NRW] own Customer Care and Service Standard. We will continue to seek a reply. In the mean time we have arranged a meeting with EA [Midlands]for 25^th Feb to discuss our proposal and explore opportunities on the Wye in England. We are also reviewing what other opportunities exist to overturn this, in our opinion, flawed decision. We will keep you informed.

Help The Recovery of the Wye Salmon

Just to make you, our supporters aware that a group of representatives from WSA met with NRW in Cardiff on Thursday 15^th. The ensuing discussions involved our analysis of the very serious mismatch between their scientific evidence and the decision to cease stocking. We further presented the NRW representatives with an outline of our proposals for reviving Wye salmon fisheries. We would like to thank you all for your support, it was extremely valuable in these discussions to be able to express the strength of that support as demonstrated in your response to our petition. We now await NRW responses before we decide on a further plan of action. We will continue to inform you and update you on these activities.

Share this petition

Help this petition to reach more signatures.

How to promote a petition?

• Share the petition on your Facebook wall and in groups related to the topic of your petition.
• Contact your friends
  1. Write a message where you explain why you have signed this petition, since people are more likely to sign it if they understand how important the topic is.
  2. Copy and paste the web address of the petition into your message.
  3. Send the message using email, SMS, Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter, Skype, Instagram and LinkedIn.