You know Steven the thing here for me is we need to make pragmatic decisions, those decision must be part of a long term plan and they must be stuck to and be for the good of the environment we have and the one we hope to have.
I can't speak for New Zealand, never been, but the removal of one of the key tourism attractions that brings many hundreds of thousands of dollars to the economy every year would seem to be less than pragmatic....
The truth is we live in a managed environment, pure and simple - where man has trodden he has bent that environment to his will, needs and desires. Often (probably mostly, to be fair) at the expense of native ecosystems. If you create an environment that requires constant maintenance it's daft not to continue that management, as custodians for future generations strikes me we should do more about ensuring the survival of our indigenous fish species less they disappear in their entirety.
When it comes to UK fisheries management there are a broad palette of issues to be attended to, particularly when it comes to the diminishing resource of Salmon and Sea Trout stocks. Within my lifetime the number of Salmon going through the dams on the Beauly has dropped from something over 40,000 per annum to less than a tenth of that amount. This year, I am told the count is likely to be less than 3,000 fish returning.
It's likely that less than 80,000 smolts will make it to sea this spring coming and God alone knows what will happen to them at sea.
Thing is, we do know what impacts on these fish in freshwater - yet we deal with the side issues and not the principal predators.
This seems highly illogical, if you know where some of the issues are then you address those to do what you can to ensure efforts on improving habitat are not entirely wasted by offering a free smorgasbord of fish populations to our avian 'friends' - and mink, and.... so on.
We used to manage goosanders, cormorants and seals, but these days some special 'high velocity loving' is apparently one of the most heinous environmental crimes.
I accept the removal of 'invasive species' is likely to be far more effective for plants than it is for birds and fish (I'm not touching on minnows, perch or pike as yet
) but we must do something as part of a co-ordinated effort towards securing future populations. We also have to dispel with the myth that it's 'invasive species' only that require attention, seal populations have quadrupled in recent years.
So the strides that have been made in habitat improvement and management, the opening up of spawning water and all the initiatives that sit there as 'tools' for 21st century fisheries management seem to be stymied by a failure to deal with predation issues.
H
