John Bailey – The Kingfisher Diaries
October 2nd 2009
What's Up With The Wensum?
Here at Kingfisher, we are lucky enough to have a fantastic stretch of the Wensum. Or, perhaps I should say that it has been fantastic for most of the thirty-odd years that I've known it. However, the recent couple of months have been problematic. The water has been low and crystal clear and it has been possible to walk the entire stretch without seeing anything of piscatorial interest. I say that but it's not exactly true...a big bream swam hurriedly past the other day. There's a small shoal of chub tucked under a bush. I saw what looked like a solitary roach.
But you get my gist. I recently walked an Austrian friend around and he muttered that he'd never seen a river more beautiful. And holding so few fish!
But, of course, what's true for us is true for all the Wensum. I haven't restricted my walks this month to our piece alone. It's possible to walk miles along this beautiful river, this Norfolk flagship of waters, and not see a single fish. As far as I'm concerned, there is only one culprit. The otter.
I've recently returned from a week down on the River Wye, filming and photographing. The Wye, by comparison, is a massive river. Its fish stocks, by comparison, are enormous. And, yet, though I walked five or six miles of the Wye daily, I saw no trace of otters. Otters exist on the Wye for sure but, there, their territories are large as they should be. Otters were built to roam. They're animals that demand space. Too many otters in too small an environment is asking for trouble.
And that's what we've got on the Wensum. We've got endless otters. In fact, it's hardly possible to walk a mile of the river without either seeing an animal or seeing traces of an animal at work. And that means, often, a dead fish or a pile of scales as an epitaph.
We've got to do something. The Environment Agency has got to listen. It's no longer good enough to make tentative noises. It's no longer good enough to tow politically correct lines.
There are solutions. Watch this space. This autumn, at Kingfishers, we're determined to get things moving. Your support could prove critical.