The Thames Anglers Conservancy were alerted by a report on the Thames Ditton Residents association forum about a pollution incident on the river Rythe. The Rythe is a small tributary which rises near Oxshott and runs into the Thames, forming the boundary between Kingston and Thames Ditton.

The report followed an incident where a road contractor had pumped heavily silted water down a land drain which emptied into the Rythe.

TAC representatives met local residents and arranged access through a garden to the river and a very welcome cup of tea. Donning waders it was found that the sandy deposit had affected a 100m stretch, upstream was clear.

The residents had called the Environment Agency hotline on 0800 80 70 60 as soon as it happened, a list of what should be reported is published by the EA.

In the same area several build ups of debris caused by garden waste was cleared to improve the natural flow.

There was a surprise discovery of  Invasive plants Japanese Knotweed and Himalayan Balsam which were cleared.

The River Rythe is a hidden gem and like all Thames tributaries important to the biodiversity of the main river so needs to be protected.

TAC

Thames Anglers Conservancy volunteers headed out for a Sunday morning clean up along a Thames tributary, the Beverley Brook.

A member who regularly walks the reach and had been doing litter picks, reported areas where rubbish was in the river and suggested a volunteer event.

Waders, litter pickers and bin bags were brought down and they set about the task in hand.

A supermarket bags and detritus on the river bed

TAC volunteers removing filled bags

After a very enjoyable spring morning the volunteers cleared many bin bags of assorted rubbish, two car wheels, various pieces of timber, a push bike, numerous golf balls and road traffic cones.

Thanks again to everyone who came along and made a difference

TAC

British Waterways is today asking the green-fingered to be aware of the Dirty Dozen lurking in and around their garden ponds and in their fish tanks.

Often attractive ornamental aquatic plants and sometimes animals bought as pets or introduced unwittingly into our waterways. The Dirty Dozen are all invasive species introduced from overseas which can quickly choke canals and rivers and cause extensive harm to native wildlife.

Although introduced to the waterways by well-intentioned members of the public, the Dirty Dozen can quickly takeover, are often costly to remove and can decimate some of the nation’s best loved waterway creatures.

Chris John, British Waterways national ecologist, explains: “In their native countries these particular species are kept in check by nature, where they are part of an adapted system of predators. However, here they have no natural predators and so often quickly outcompete other plants, animals and fish, causing serious problems for wildlife, as well as choking up boats, the towpath and other 200-year old heritage structures such as locks and bridges.”

The Dirty Dozen have all been introduced to Britain’s canals and rivers from overseas, having made their way to our waters in many ways. Often, unaware of their potential to cause damage, people introduce species intended for garden ponds and aquariums to their local canal when they dispose of them, for example, throwing weed from fish tanks into canals or releasing Red-Eared Terrapins that have grown too big.

The Dirty Dozen plants and animals are:

• Japanese Knotweed

• Australian Swamp Stonecrop

• Giant Hogweed

• Himalayan Balsam

• Water Fern

• Floating Pennywort

• American Signal Crayfish

• Zebra Mussel

• Zander

• Mink

• Red-eared Terrapin

• Chinese Mitten Crab

Chris continues: “The destruction of suitable places for wildlife to live is the biggest threat facing Britain’s nature today, these species add to this problem by taking more than their fair share of space, water and sunlight. I am therefore asking people to help us by disposing of these plants and animals safely and carefully selecting alternative plants for their gardens, ponds and aquariums.”

The Angling Trust is warning all anglers NOT to buy their licence from the commercial fishingrodlicence.com web site, unless they want to pay an unnecessary extra charge of £14 for checking over their application.  This service is of no real benefit to anglers because the Environment Agency (EA) does not require applications to be checked before submission.  The web site has been set up this year and comes top of a Google search for “Rod Licence”.  In addition to the extra charge, anglers buying their licences from the web site will not be able to go fishing until they receive their licence in the post.  The EA site offers a receipt and reference number which does allow people to fish while they are waiting for the licence to arrive.

The Angling Trust strongly recommends that all freshwater anglers buy their licence direct from the Environment Agency over the phone or via its website at www.environment-agency.gov.uk/homeandleisure/recreation/fishing/31497.aspx, or from Post Offices and clearly authorised outlets.  The representative body for all anglers will also be writing to Consumer Direct to complain about the web site and raising the matter with Fisheries Minister Richard Benyon MP and Charles Walker, Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Angling Group. 

Mark Lloyd, Chief Executive of the Angling Trust said: “This site offers no real extra service, but demands a 50% surcharge on top of the rod licence fee and we urge all anglers to spread the word.  We would encourage members who have concerns about this website to contact Consumer Direct and their MP.  Any unsuspecting new anglers trying to buy their first licence might be put off by the inflated price and decide not to take up fishing.”

For more info about writing to Consumer Direct go to www.oft.gov.uk/consumer-advice/oft-and-cd

To find your MP go to findyourmp.parliament.uk

Please make your fishing friends aware of this by clicking HERE to forward them this email.
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Environment Agency Statement:

We are aware of a website that offers a “rod licence application processing service”. It claims to offer “a comprehensive application service for any angler wishing to obtain a rod license.” It will “check over your application, ensuring there are no errors (for example forename switched with surname, lack of capitalisation in your name, and any obvious spelling errors).”

You pay an additional charge for this service, for example, the service charge for processing a full annual coarse and trout licence is £14, which you pay on top of the £27 licence duty.

The Environment Agency has no connection with this website, nor does it endorse its services.
The service appears to be legal, however, we would like to point out that –

a)
the Environment Agency does not require this check when someone buys their licence through the Agency’s website, over the counter at the Post Office or over the phone. An angler only has to give their name, age, proof of concession where necessary, and post-code and house number – a quick address search completes the rest;
b)
when you buy direct from the Environment Agency’s website at www.environment-agency.gov.uk/homeandleisure/recreation/fishing/31497.aspx, at the Post Office or over the phone, you only pay the licence duty – you do not pay any additional charge;
c)
when you buy a licence direct from our website at www.environment-agency.gov.uk/homeandleisure/recreation/fishing/31497.aspx or over the phone, you are given a licence reference number and receipt. This allows you to go fishing while we send you your licence in the post. We are not aware that this service can provide such an immediate response, so anglers may not be able to go fishing immediately they have paid for their licence.

Sunday 18th April saw our volunteers out again, this time following up on a report that a sofa had been dumped into the marginal Lower Thames

It is not clear how this may have been dumped but seems possible that it was from a passing boat, from the bankside it was situated too far out.

Armed with a long rake kindly lent by the Teddington Lock Keeper, volunteers dragged the sofa close to the bank where it could be removed as a hazard to river users and before it started to decay and pollute the river.

As our volunteers moved farther along, more debris was seen and retrieved.

The result of what was collected was one car wheel and two tyres, a full aluminium beer keg, a 5 gallon plastic container,  a 5 litre water bottle, four boat cushions, a sofa-bed and volunteers managed  to fill four large bin bags with litter.

To round off a very enjoyable and satisfying morning, on arriving back at Teddington, Jeff the Lock Keeper greeted us with a cup of  tea and a few laughs.

Thanks to all the staff down at Teddington and all the locks for always making us feel very welcome.

TAC

South Suffolk, Essex, Thames and North Kent

http://www.balancedseas.org/page/RSG Resources.html

Over 200 bags of rubbish, shopping trolleys and much more, its was quite a first season for Anglers cleaning up the Thames

Fed up with seeing litter on the riverbank and hearing Anglers sometimes get the blame, the Thames Anglers Conservancy decided to do something about it.

Starting out with gloves brought from home, a single litter picker and bin bags donated by Surbiton Angling Centre, our volunteers set about picking up the assorted debris and litter from the banks of the River Thames. 

With suggestions of areas coming from Anglers, the Environment Agency and even resident associations, TAC volunteers including youngsters brave all weather conditions regularly to clean the riverbank. Along with these suggestions, a list of known problem areas are regularly targeted with our events taking place every two weeks or more. In the height of last summer we had volunteers out midweek as well as weekends, direct action as and when it was needed.

Our first year of action on the Thames culminated with an end of the river season margin clearing event at the riverside in Kingston. To hold the rubbish, the Environment Agency kindly lent a barge and the local Turks Launch provided free mooring at their pier. Using our members’ boats and donated grappling hooks attached to ropes, TAC volunteers made their way along the margins until the barge was full of Kingston’s rubbish.

The list of what has been collected over the fishing season highlights the variety of people that use the river and the apparent disregard some of them have for our environment. During cleans up we have collected a full array of bikes, shopping trolleys, televisions, car wings, cut timber, steel plates, plus loads of other junk and the filled industrial bin bag total is now in excess of 200 and rising.

Perhaps more crucially, it proves that those who picnic, live, shop, work, walk their dog, cruise their boat and fish are all contributors to the problem in varying degrees.

 Chairman James Page commented ‘The litter and rubbish we find is not all anglers, but what we have proved is that as anglers, we are willing to go out and make a difference, for free. I would like to thank all the volunteers who come out with us and give up their time, many on a regular basis to improve our riverside environment’

Notice to editors:

The Thames Anglers Conservancy is a free to join organization and is a consultative member of the Angling Trust for Thames between Staines and Dartford.

As a Thames Angling stakeholder, we are involved with many organizations including the Environment Agency, river user groups and local councils.

We are concerned with many aspects of the Thames including the threat of Hydropower, loss of fishing rights and pollution along with the positive aspects of promoting angling and its benefits.

For more pictures and information go to www.rivertac.org or email admin@rivertac.org