Corporate report

Fisheries annual report 2019 to 2020

Published 15 January 2021

Applies to England

1. What we’ve done with our resources

For every £1 of fishing licence money we invested in projects, we secured an additional £25.70 to invest in fisheries and angling.

During the financial year 1 April 2019 to 31 March 2020 we sold 940,974 fishing licences. This generated an income of £20,898,322. We also received £1,080,000 grant-in-aid (GiA) from central government.

With this money we were able to:

• check 61,436 fishing licences
• make 1,611 successful prosecutions
• attend 309 fisheries incidents involving dead or dying fish
• carry out 1,521 fish stock surveys
• supply and stock 520,475 coarse fish
• work with over 2,000 different partners
• invest £26,700,000 in fisheries projects including partners’ contributions and additional government funding
• complete 58 fish pass solutions
• open up or improve 515 kilometres (km) of riverine habitats for fish
• enhance 185 hectares (ha) of stillwater fisheries

2. The activities we’ve spent the money on

We provided 31.3% of income to deliver work in all of our 14 areas. This includes monitoring, enforcement, fish stocking, fish rescues, responding to incidents and providing fisheries advice.

We contributed 22.4% of our income towards the fisheries project portfolio. This includes funding the partnership work we do with organisations. Examples of these are the Angling Trust, the Wild Trout Trust (WTT) and the local Rivers Trusts plus many others. This also includes funding angling and fisheries improvement projects.

We invested 18.6% of our income on support services. These include the costs of IT infrastructure, finance, corporate services and human resources.

We spent 17.2% on national services. We aim to be efficient and get these activities right first time – licence sales, administration and prosecutions. This expenditure also covers the costs of the National Fisheries Laboratory, contributions to our National Customer Contact Centre and the Estates and Fleet Operations.

We used 10.1% to support government and input to the strategic direction for achieving our fisheries priority outcomes. This includes the costs of our national Fisheries team.

3. Fishing licence sales and income

This graph shows the total income and total sales from 2000 to 2020.

Since the financial year 2010 to 2011 the number of people that go fishing and buy licences has declined each year. This has led to a fall in our income from sales by approximately 11% since that time. During that period we increased prices just once in 2017. This was to continue to encourage angling and not make it cost prohibitive.

As income has declined we’ve had less money to spend on fisheries. However, we have managed to restrict the effects of this through efficiency savings and better partnership working.

In 2019 to 2020 we sold 940,974 licences to 835,244 individual anglers. This generated income of £20,898,322. In 2018 we raised the age for requiring a licence from 12 to 13. This has affected sales compared to previous years.

4. How partnerships help us achieve our objectives

By working in partnership with other like-minded groups and organisations we can often achieve more with our money and deliver better fisheries outcomes.

We worked with over 2,000 partners in 2019 to 2020. These include the:

• Angling Trust
• WTT
• Institute of Fisheries Management (IFM)
• Riverfly Partnership
• local river trusts, angling clubs, charities and others

The work we do with partners includes:

• carrying out projects to improve fish stocks and habitats
• providing new facilities for anglers and making fisheries more accessible
• promoting angling and giving more people the opportunity to try fishing
• joined up enforcement and intelligence sharing

The Angling Trust

We commission the Angling Trust to carry out certain activities to improve and develop angling under our National Angling Strategic Services (NASS) contract. The service is worth £1,150,000 per year. The current contract was awarded in 2019, following competitive tender, and will run for up to 4 years.

One of the main objectives is to increase the number of people fishing and buying a licence. The Angling Trust organised a large number of ‘Get Fishing’ events during the year. In 2019 to 2020 over 40,000 people tried fishing for the first time at 1,525 of these angling participation events. There were 100,000 visits to the Get Fishing website during the year.

They also trained a number of people who help introduce people to angling. This included:

• 171 new level 1 licenced coaches
• 126 new level 2 licenced coaches
• 14 club welfare officers
• a new Volunteering best practice guide for clubs and fisheries

This generated an estimated £1.02million in match funding to deliver angling participation events and coaching.

They engaged with anglers by:

• holding 28 fisheries forums around the country which were attended by 890 people
• responding to 883 requests for predator control advice, including attending meetings, site visits and telephone or email contact
• responding to 14 requests to help remove otters from fisheries
• issuing 20 area based cormorant control licences with a further 4 in progress – these licences cover a wider area in a catchment and are not specific to a particular fishery

Building Bridges aims to educate and integrate migrant anglers from Eastern Europe. The team distributed 7,000 multi-lingual leaflets and 480 signs. They visited 6 weekend schools, presenting to 1,550 children.

In October 2019, 12 Building Bridges local volunteers were recruited to increase engagement with fisheries across the country. They have already provided 31 translation services.

Input to wider environmental benefits includes:

• new Anglers Against Litter webpages
• 450 Anglers National Line Recycling scheme recycling bins in tackle shops and at large fisheries for unwanted fishing line
• new invasive non-native species materials to raise awareness amongst anglers and fishery owners – 530 clubs and fisheries have received copies

WTT

We have enjoyed many productive years of working together with the WTT. Our joint aim is to involve people and communities in conservation. This includes enhancing the natural environment, especially our rivers, their trout and other wildlife.

We contributed £90,000 to fund advisory work and £22,820 for project costs. In 2019 to 2020 they have:

• carried out 65 advisory visits and reports of recommendations for habitat improvement work
• delivered 17 practical river improvement projects
• involved 1,150 volunteers working for 10,400 hours in practical river conservation
• worked to enhance directly 160km of rivers across England
• provided effective and widespread dissemination of relevant conservation messages through a variety of media
• generated £886,000 co-funding (cash and in-kind) towards the partnership

The Riverfly Partnership

The Anglers’ Riverfly Monitoring Initiative is a citizen science initiative. Volunteers are trained to carry out standardised monitoring of aquatic invertebrates in rivers. They do this monthly and use it to assess water quality.

We provided the Riverfly Partnership £53,500 in funding.

In 2019 to 2020 they have:

• involved 3,718 volunteers
• run 81 training workshops
• surveyed 2,600 sites
• submitted 2,664 pollution reports
• generated £892,761 in match funding

IFM

On our behalf the IFM ran a programme of stillwater fishery management workshops across the country. They aimed to provide angling clubs and fisheries managers the knowledge and tools to help them better manage their waters. Also to reduce the risk of fisheries incidents.

We provided £12,340 in funding.

In 2019 to 2020 they:

• held 8 weekend fisheries management workshops
• presented to 211 delegates from 125 different organisations
• organised a one day workshop on weed and algal control that was attended by 115 people

5. Improvement projects

There are 2 types of projects funded directly by fishing licence income, they are:

• Angling Improvement Fund (AIF) projects managed by the Angling Trust through the NASS contract
• Fisheries Improvements Programme (FIP) projects managed by local Environment Agency teams

In addition, benefits to fisheries were provided by other projects carried out by the Environment Agency. Most notably the Water Environment Improvement Fund (WEIF) that delivered Water Framework Directive outcomes funded as grant-in-aid from central government.

In total we spent approximately £1million of rod licence income and £25.7million of other funding in projects to improve fisheries.

AIF projects

Twenty seven projects were completed during the year to protect fisheries from predation by otters and cormorants.

The funding for AIF projects came from:

• licence income – £105,941
• match funding including cash from partners, match funding grants or the ‘in kind’ time of volunteers – £246,774

See the map for locations of the AIF projects.

FIP projects

One hundred and thirty five projects were completed during the year. Working with 160 partners we improved 27km of rivers and 148ha of stillwaters. Seven barriers to fish movements were removed. Fifty projects improved angler access to fisheries.

We also invested in equipment to protect fisheries from prolonged dry weather (drought conditions). Water meters to monitor dissolved oxygen and aerators to prevent fish deaths will reduce the number of incidents across the country. The total spend was £30,000.

The funding of FIP projects came from:

• fishing licence income – £836,000
• match funding – £1,045,000

See the map for locations of the FIP projects.

Water Environment Improvement Fund (WEIF)

Projects are typically organised through catchment partnerships. Habitat improvements can benefit fish and fisheries.

Working with 731 partners we improved 488km of rivers and 37ha of stillwaters. Fifty one fish passes were built or barriers removed.

The funding for WEIF projects was:

• £6.1million from Environment Agency funding (not fishing licence income)
• £16.5million from match funding

6. Fish stocking

We run a coarse fish hatchery at Calverton near Nottingham. This rears fish to help:

• replenish stocks after an incident
• kick-start the recovery of fisheries after they’ve recovered from long term issues

This is funded by fishing licence income. We have stocked 520,475 fish around the country of which:

• 65,774 – barbel
• 89,678 – roach
• 50,095 – chub
• 90,750 – grayling
• 56,967 – common bream
• 48,532 – dace
• 78,200 – crucian carp
• 22,938 – tench
• 17,541 – rudd

In addition, we released 7,600,000 advanced stage fish larvae.

7. Fisheries laboratory

We operate a fisheries laboratory in Brampton which is funded by fishing licence income. This laboratory carries out vital work, it:

• regulates fish movements
• checks the health status of fish stocks and individual fish to minimise the risk of spreading fish diseases

The laboratory also issues licences for commercial fishing and collates rod catch returns from salmon and sea trout anglers.

In 2019 to 2020 the laboratory:

• carried out 71 fish age surveys to assess the status of fish populations
• carried out 42 additional age surveys in support of fish health examinations, including 30 in relation to fish disease incidents
• examined 5,988 sets of fish scales to determine the age structure of fish populations
• assessed 130 fish mortality events related to potential fish disease incidents
• carried out full fish disease diagnostic investigations into fish kills at 30 fisheries, including 10 outbreaks of notifiable disease – Koi herpesvirus (KHV)
• investigated 1 outbreak of novel disease (Anguillid herpesvirus-1 – one of a number of diseases controlled by the Environment Agency)
• issued 1,937 Section 27A authorisations to remove fish and crayfish
• issued 107 commercial salmon and sea trout licences
• issued 340 commercial elver licences
• issued 50 commercial eel licences
• collated and reported on 23,101 rod catch returns

8. Enforcement

We spent some of our income on enforcement action. We must do this to ensure anglers contribute fairly to:

• the work we do on their behalf
• make sure they comply with regulations to protect fish stocks, such as during the close season

We have:

• checked 61,436 fishing licences
• issued 2,054 offence reports
• prosecuted 1,611 anglers for fishing without a licence

The percentage of anglers who avoid getting a licence is 3.38%. In total £285,902.50 was issued in penalties against anglers over the year. The average penalty received was £184.37.

An integral part of our enforcement activity is the Fisheries Enforcement Support Service provided by the Angling Trust. This includes the Voluntary Bailiff Service which operates across all of England with a total of 500 volunteers (as of 31 March 2020).

Voluntary bailiffs:

• gave 32,338 volunteer hours on the bank
• carried out 13,279 patrols
• carried out 90 joint patrols with the Environment Agency
• carried out 90 joint patrols with the police
• submitted 269 incidents reported to the Environment Agency
• submitted 116 incidents reported to the police
• submitted 206 intelligence logs to the Environment Agency and or the police

In addition 40 police forces have joined up to Operation Leviathan and Traverse.

9. Incident response

We attended 309 incidents involving dead or dying fish. These incidents included:

Type of incident	Number of incidents	Percentage of total incidents
Pollution	66	21.36%
Fish disease	27	8.74%
Warm or dry weather, or algae	87	11.33%
Habitat damage	3	0.97%
Illegal fishing	19	6.15%
Fishery management	8	2.59%
Other causes	70	22.65%
Not identified	29	9.39%

10. Monitoring

Fish stock monitoring helps us to:

• inform our management decisions
• report on the Water Framework Directive objectives we must deliver to show the state of the water environment

We carry out surveys either every year, 2 years, 3 years or 6 years. The repeat frequency depends on why we are collecting information at the site. Not every water body is monitored for fish as we prioritise those with angling interest and those considered at most risk.

During 2019 we did 1,521 fish stock surveys.

Waterbody status for fish as indicated by these surveys and other data showed:

• 41% – good or better
• 28% – moderate
• 24% – poor
• 7% – bad

We also use our fisheries monitoring to assess the status of migratory fish stocks in our main salmon and sea trout rivers. We employ a range of fish counters and also use rod catch data to make these assessments.

In 2019, we assessed that 39 out of our 42 main salmon rivers are ‘at risk’ or ‘probably at risk’. None were categorised as ‘not at risk’.

For the 44 main sea trout rivers, we classified 6 ‘not at risk’ and 18 ‘probably not at risk’, 18 rivers were ‘probably at risk’ and 2 were ‘at risk’.

Salmon populations in England are increasingly in a critical state. In contrast sea trout showed a slight improvement on 2018.

See the map showing the status of salmon and sea trout rivers.

The declared salmon rod catch for England was 7,674, which is 18% higher than 2018 (6,488).

The declared sea trout rod catch in England was 11,531, which is 40% higher than 2018 (8.248).

We report all data for salmon and sea trout in the Annual Assessment of Salmon Stocks and Fisheries in England and Wales. You can find information on rod catches from individual rivers in our Salmonid and freshwater fisheries statistics reports for England and Wales.

11. Research and development

Our research and development programme helps to ensure we have a rigorous evidence base to support risk-based decision making and deliver sustainable fisheries management.

In 2019 to 2020, we did a range of scientific research projects to address key evidence gaps and improve our understanding of issues affecting fish populations. Where possible, we work with our partners to deliver shared research objectives more cost-effectively.

We have listed the national projects carried out by our Research, Analysis and Evaluation (RAE) team under the fisheries research and development programme. This includes projects completed in 2019 to 2020 and projects which are ongoing. A list of publications relating to our work is available on GOV.UK.

Our research and development projects receive funding from various sources. These include GiA, fishing licence funding and other sections of the Environment Agency. External sources include other UK government agencies, universities, non-government organisations and the European Union.

• ICES (International Council for the Exploration of the Sea) salmon stocks report – this work helps to inform management decisions at national and international levels relating to salmon protection
• DNA-based monitoring methods for fish in lakes – joint work with SEPA (Scottish Environment Protection Agency), NRW (Natural Resource Wales) and Hull and Stirling universities has generated a classification system for lake fish for WFD (Water Framework Directive), based upon eDNA sampling
• Review of salmon conservation limit compliance methodology – a working group of scientists from the Environment Agency, NRW, Cefas (Centre for the Environment and Aquaculture Science) and GWCT (Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust) are carrying out a review of various aspects of salmon compliance assessment methodology
• Strategic review of data and information on coarse fish – detailed examination of data from our National Fish Populations database
• Endocrine disruption in fish – a re-survey of the levels of intersex (feminisation) in wild fish in English rivers, a number of sites previously sampled during studies in the 1990s were revisited to collect samples of roach
• Evidence on the interaction of beavers with fish and fisheries – we made contributions to Natural England’s review of the available evidence on the interactions of beavers with the natural and human environment, including fisheries
• Investigations of fish behaviour in relation to hydrodynamic and acoustic cues – studies of hearing capabilities and responses of eel and lamprey, also behaviour of juvenile chub and barbel in relation to wedge-wire and bar-screens