• On our bit of trout stream some wild fish are caught and stripped of eggs and milt, the resulting fry are raised in a hatchery, vastly improving the chances of the fry reaching maturity. The donors are released.

    If our waterways were left to the Environment Agency, most would resemble barren canals for surface run-off, water meadows would pretty much cease to exist.

    Left to the water companies anything upstream of a sewage works would be abstracted and flow levels vastly reduced. Anything downstream would be a slow running sewer.

    Left to the general public, every bankside would be knee deep in rubbish and the water would enjoy even more shopping trollies (and bikes). You should see the amount of crap cleared by working parties of fishermen.

    Fishermen are about the only people who give a damn about fish and, therefore, the biodiversity which supports them.

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