Of the Close Season
April is the Cruellest Month
As Nigel Horan explains, with extracts from his new book, Reclaiming the Calder.
‘You can only use natural or artificial fly, minnow, worm, shrimp, prawn, sand eel or artificial lures during close season’.
It was introduced in 1878, [The Freshwater Fisheries Act or Mundella Act] at a time when fish were generally caught for the table, and at that time the stated aims of the close season were to protect fish during their spawning period. This justification for the close season is still used to this day in the frequent debates that are held with regards to removing or modifying it. The government advice is still that:
‘This three-month closure is a really important time for fish. Many will be preparing to spawn, are spawning or recovering from spawning - adult fish, emerging eggs and juvenile fish or fry are all vulnerable.’
* * *
The history of the Mundella Act shows us that its aim of protecting fish when they are spawning was not actually driven by the impact of a small number of pleasure anglers catching spawning fish that were subsequently returned to continue breeding, but rather by the wholesale removal of vast quantities of fish as a food source by many hundreds of commercial fishermen and anglers, that would not be returned for breeding. Whereas the impact of the former would be minimal, the latter would have a major deleterious impact on freshwater fish stocks and so any fence period, regardless of when it was applied, would offer a significant protection to existing fish stocks. The Mundella Act itself is no longer with us, as it has been incorporated into newer legislation.
* * *
All our more recent debates about the close season cannot get away from the fact that we currently close our rivers for three months due to a decision taken in Victorian times. The decision was taken based on the verbal evidence the Victorians had to hand on fish welfare and their own viewpoints of fish protection, in a society where many hundreds of commercial fishermen relied on the rivers for their livelihood and pleasure anglers frequently fished for the table. At the same time, the climate and seasons were very, very different to that of today and the idea of climate change was a long way in the future. Economists refer to this as ‘Path Dependency’, where a decision taken many decades ago effectively limits the available future options and indeed may prevent the most sensible and appropriate decision being taken. So what might we do today if we were taking this decision and were currently debating the best way to protect our fish stocks and associated river ecosystem? The EA [Environment Agency] position is clear in its view of the close season, namely that:
It is also clear that it is not willing to move from this position without any new scientific evidence that shows fish are not at risk from fishing during their spawning period. The EA is without doubt the body best placed to gather such evidence, but this is a task it has stated it is not going to undertake on the grounds of cost. In order to gather the necessary evidence a reasonably long-term (for instance, three to five year) study would be required to compare fish health in heavily fished rivers such as the Severn, Trent and Thames, some stretches fished and some unfished over the spawning period. However, even if a privately funded study was commissioned, it is highly unlikely that the EA would relax the close season on those rivers that were chosen for comparison, so the evidence-based route has become a dead end. It is easy to understand why the EA takes its present position. Not only must it consider the views of all water users, it must also consider all water uses. It is aware that the consensus within the angling community to end the close season is not strong and that pressure applied from them to end it, will be considerably less than pressure from other environmental groups to maintain it. A much safer option for the EA is obviously to do nothing.
* * *
On a personal level I am frustrated every year, when after a long wait due to adverse weather conditions, I get the chance to return to the Calder and fish the last few days of the season. Conditions can be close to perfect and the fish hungry. But I am then faced with a long wait, returning three months later, in June, when the river is rarely as good as it was in March. Selfish possibly, but as I have yet to see any robust scientific evidence to suggest even the slightest harm to spawning fish from catch and release, I think my feeling is justified. But, trawling through social media, reading the many thousands of diverse views on the close season, I found one comment in particular that will provide me with some solace over the many close seasons to come:
‘ . . . to wait for the last week of the closed season, the anticipation of getting down to the lovely little winding river with fresh grassy banks full of wild flowers and birds singing, that first cast in. And the first bite, surely that’s got to be worth waiting for.’
Read more from Nigel Horan in
Reclaiming the Calder
