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Reasons for Barbel population decline

The link I put up was from 2009, and even then the EA acknowledged that gender bending chemicals, via female urine was entering the river Severn at Bridgnorth and undoubltedly other points on the river thus causing male Barbel to show feminisation and sexual change, thus effecting the sustainability of the Barbel population, thats when I started to raise the question of declining Barbel populations. I still maintain that the reason for current population decline is possibly because of the lack of Male fish, thus creating a Barbel stock that is predominantly female and that grows to unprecedented sizes, as I have said, on some rivers its easy to catch a 10 pounder than two 5 pounders
 
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I think your absolutely 100% correct Lawrence..
I also agree with everything Graham has said and many others..

Heres the big question...

How are we going to stop Water companies ( Corparations ).?

The EA cant do this..
The AT cant do this..
And the Government definitely wont.!

The only group to my knowledge who have successfully taken the Water authorities to court and WON, were a group known as SAS ( Surfers Against Sewage )..

The water companies got massive fines and very shortly after, peoples water bills went up..

Lets assume that Graham is also correct..That would mean we would also have to take on Animal Feed/Industrial chemical Corporations also...

The problem is MASSIVE and needs MASSIVE actions...

Start with organising nearly EVERY Angler into joining a group which boycotts the EA fishing licence..
Then we would get the press/Media involved..

We need to be more vocal and take direct action..
 
Lol.

Yes. Spot on and no surprise.

The de sexing of fish IS undoubtedly the major Contributor to the lack of barbel in so many of our rivers.

It should be the KEY issue that any Organisation should be addressing.

Graham
 
I agree Graham, and its wrong to assume (by others) that we are saying that this is the cause of all our problems, as I keep saying on the forums, its a discussion point, its to consider and when the EA say in a scientific document/paper that the discharging of sewage and their feministaion contents, will, (not might) effect the spawning success of fish due to the feminisation of Barbel you have to take it on board, we have people demanding proof and a scientific paper to back up claims, and when that is provided, they then throw it out.....we really are up the creak without a paddle......or maybe a Barbel in a few years time.
 
Agree with what your saying Lawrence..

I wouldent be at all surprised if nothing is done until the Otter is in trouble again, which if the current trend continues I have no doubt will happen..

The EU have condemned the water quality in our rivers and have or intend to issue fines to the Water authorities..

The fact that the EA know whats wrong and cant do anything about it, pretty much sums up the whole horrible mess..

The moment our Water authorities were sold off and privatised, was the moment we all lost control of the most valuable commodity any country has..

I think I am correct in saying most if not all European Water authorities are still state controlled, and they don't have the same problems..

Even with Otters..;)
 
Craig.
I think you might be right in saying many of the Water companies here are in Foreign control where possibly the actual controls are lax enough for them to make real profits!

Graham
 
Would be a fair point Craig if the rivers were not cleaner now than they were under the state, but they are, so its not.

Things could always be better of course.
 
Sewage works 10 years behind UK graham, but industrial discharges lower in the main.

Plus,... Spain is 5 times bigger with a lower population than UK so not quite so much pressure I guess.
 
Tony Rocca said:
Would be a fair point Craig if the rivers were not cleaner now than they were under the state, but they are, so its not.

Things could always be better of course.
Click to expand...

Cleaner in what way Tony? They may have lower biological contamination levels and look cleaner now, because the sewage plants are slowly becoming more efficient at removing that type of contamination and the discharge levels have been tightened. But, what about the invisible pharmaceutical contaminant levels which are rising because of massive increases in the prescribing and use of many types of drugs? These contaminants are not removed by the current methods used by the treatment plants, so 'cleaner' is surely a very subjective evaluation?

Cheers, Dave.
 
Lots of our rivers have never been clearer than before ,a match fishing friend believes the suspended muck that the sewerage works used to pump out into our rivers and colour them would feed the fry during their first winter.Now they are clearer(but contain more chemicals) there is nothing to feed these fry and they starve.
 
If our Rivers are clean, then why is the UK being fined by the EU for not meeting Targets that were agreed by all EU members..

The water may look clean and healthy compared to years gone by, that is mainly due to the demise of Industry in this country..

Sandbanks Beach in Poole looks amazing in the summer, it even won awards...

Its was also one of many sites in the country where high levels of pollution were detected, that WAS harmful to human Health..

Surfers Against Sewage brought this to light and won their court case in the European High court..

The report was damning and the blame was firmly layed upon the Water authorities because of lack of investment..
 
Lawrence, worth quoting me thinks...

Through controlled, including long term (up to 4 year) exposures, we have subsequently proven that feminisation of wild roach living in UK rivers is caused by exposure to treated sewage effluents...we have also identified the suite of feminising chemicals in effluent discharges, principally environmental oestrogens, and through laboratory exposures proven they contribute to the feminisation of wild fish in UK rivers. These chemicals include natural and synthetic steroid oestrogens, and alkylphenolic compounds. ...we have further established that oestrogenic chemicals can be additive in their effects

A major focus for our research work in the EABRG has been to establish whether wild fish (roach, Rutilus rutilus) populations are impacted adversely by exposure to oestrogenic effluent discharges. Undertaking controlled breeding studies in the laboratory and applying DNA microsatellites to assess parentage with we have proven that moderately to severely feminised males have a reduced capacity to compete with normal males to sire offspring. We have further shown that life long exposure to an oestrogenic effluent (at full strength) causes complete gonadal feminisation of males, some of which were able to breed as females. In some of our current work we are applying DNA microsatellites to establish whether roach populations living in rivers heavily polluted with wastewater effluents have a reduced effective population breeding size. If so, this will show that exposure to wastewater effluents at these sites is fundamentally affecting population genetics.
 
With regard to the Kennet, during winter months 2 and 3 years ago, I'd noticed in winter months even after a bit of rain when one would expect a bit of colour in the water, a rather odd clarity to it and a greenish almost fluorescent glow. Probably nothing at all but I wondered if anyone had noticed that and could comment/agree/explain. I dug up a post from 08-12-2013, 21:22

"...Good day though where I was seemed deserted. 4 chub, biggest ( the one I weighed 5.10). levels seems pretty steady over past few weeks and only a bit of leaf in the water today. Cleanish and that slightly greenish tinge that was about at the end of last season. Nice sunset. Spent a while thinking how would you spell the noise pheasants make…"
 
where can i buy a genuine otter hat from please, and yes i am serious:eek:
once got it i will wear it on all fishing days except for really hot summer days, a just off out to buy a really powerful catapult, some nice drilled bullets and a small axe (for cutting back brambles ect?:D
 
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