Corporate report

Fisheries annual report 2024 to 2025: how we spend fishing licence income

Published 12 December 2025

Applies to England

• Publication for Northern Ireland
• Publication for Scotland
• Publication for Wales

1. What we’ve done with our resources

During the financial year 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025 we sold 934,000 fishing licences in England. This generated an income of £24.15 million. We also received £1.45 million grant-in-aid (GiA) from central government.

With this money we were able to:

• check 60,320 fishing licences
• make 769 successful prosecutions
• respond to 224 fisheries incidents involving dead or dying fish
• do 1,809 fish stock surveys
• supply and stock 478,937 coarse fish
• work with over 350 different project partners
• complete 10 fish pass solutions and remove 25 weirs and barriers
• improve habitats for fish on 675 kilometres (km) of rivers and protect habitats for fish on 474km of rivers
• enhance 204 hectares (ha) of stillwater fisheries and create 22ha of stillwater habitat
• carried out projects that benefitted 179,530 anglers

2. The activities we’ve spent the money on

Category	Percentage
Areas and national services	42.7%
Fisheries project portfolio	28.1%
Support services	23.2%
Government support and strategic services	6%

Areas and national services

We provided 42.7% of income to deliver our operational work. This includes frontline delivery in all of our 14 areas doing activities such as:

• monitoring
• enforcement
• fish stocking
• fish rescues
• responding to incidents
• providing fisheries advice

It also includes our national once operational activity where we can do things centrally and this includes for example:

• licence sales
• administration
• prosecutions

This expenditure also covers the costs of the National Fisheries Laboratory, contributions to our National Customer Contact Centre, Estates and Fleet Operations.

Fisheries project portfolio

We have contributed 28.1% of our income towards the fisheries project portfolio. This includes funding the partnership work we do with other organisations. Examples of these are the:

• Angling Trust
• Wild Trout Trust
• local rivers trusts and others

It also includes funding angling and fisheries improvement projects.

Support services

We have invested 23.2% of our income on support services. These include the costs of:

• IT infrastructure
• finance
• corporate services
• human resources

Government support and strategic services

We have used 6% 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

Total sales from 2000 to 2001, to 2024 to 2025

Year	Total sales
2000 to 2001	1,024,091
2001 to 2002	1,081,623
2002 to 2003	1,126,880
2003 to 2004	1,197,160
2004 to 2005	1,202,457
2005 to 2006	1,198,768
2006 to 2007	1,210,869
2007 to 2008	1,265,771
2008 to 2009	1,286,419
2009 to 2010	1,391,201
2010 to 2011	1,368,141
2011 to 2012	1,370,465
2012 to 2013	1,230,936
2013 to 2014	1,243,837
2014 to 2015	1,210,306
2015 to 2016	1,210,201
2016 to 2017	1,191,141
2017 to 2018	1,060,420
2018 to 2019	955,310
2019 to 2020	940,974
2020 to 2021	1,090,068
2021 to 2022	934,760
2022 to 2023	903,216
2023 to 2024	910,973
2024 to 2025	934,000

Total income from 2000 to 2001, to 2024 to 2025

Year	Total income (£)
2000 to 2001	13,496,317
2001 to 2002	14,010,810
2002 to 2003	15,169,556
2003 to 2004	16,962,549
2004 to 2005	18,291,311
2005 to 2006	18,522,942
2006 to 2007	19,231,519
2007 to 2008	20,119,482
2008 to 2009	21,490,764
2009 to 2010	23,896,662
2010 to 2011	24,116,924
2011 to 2012	23,874,632
2012 to 2013	21,840,128
2013 to 2014	21,583,539
2014 to 2015	21,146,844
2015 to 2016	21,083,273
2016 to 2017	20,661,859
2017 to 2018	23,132,885
2018 to 2019	21,347,795
2019 to 2020	20,898,332
2020 to 2021	24,583,342
2021 to 2022	21,854,093
2022 to 2023	20,900,133
2023 to 2024	22,531,671
2024 to 2025	24,151,534

2024 to 2025 was the second year of a 3-year incremental duty increase. Approved by government, the duty rises are deemed necessary to allow the Environment Agency to uphold its statutory duties to maintain, develop and improve freshwater fisheries.

In 2024 to 2025 fishing licence sales recorded an increase on the previous year. This is the second year in a row that licences have increased and the first year on year increase since 2010. This represents encouraging signs that efforts to reverse the decline in participation rates, seen since 2010, through the reinvestment of fishing licence income are starting to have an effect.

4. How partnerships help us achieve our objectives

By working in partnership with a wide range of fisheries stakeholders we can often achieve:

• more from our rod licence investment through match funding
• better outcomes for fish and anglers 

We worked with over 350 partners in 2024 to 2025. These include the:

• Angling Trust
• Wild Trout Trust
• Institute of Fisheries Management
• Riverfly Partnership
• local river trusts, angling clubs, charities and others

The work we do with partners includes:

• working on projects and providing expert advice to improve fish stocks and habitats
• providing new facilities for anglers and making fisheries more accessible
• taking action to mitigate the impacts of climate change
• 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 provide certain activities that improve and develop angling under our National Angling Strategic Services (NASS) contract. The service cost in 2024 to 2025 was about £1.6 million. We advertised the new contract in late 2023 and after a thorough procurement exercise and evaluation awarded it to the Angling Trust. The NASS contract (NASS3) will run until March 2028 on an annual rolling extension meaning that delivery is reviewed every 12 months allowing improvements and efficiencies to be implemented.

One of the main objectives of the contract is to increase the number of people fishing and buying a licence. We want more people to fish more often and the contract focuses on recruiting new anglers or to encourage lapsed anglers back into the sport. 

In 2024 to 2025 the Angling Trust was supported by many partners, most notably Get Hooked on Fishing, to run angling participation events. These events resulted in 22,645 people trying fishing for the first time. Quality rather than quantity is the objective for ‘Get Fishing’ participation events. This gives attendees greater learning time and an enjoyable fishing experience.

The Get Fishing award scheme continued to prove popular with new anglers attending for 3 events and progressing through bronze, silver and gold levels. There were 3,178 participants who completed the full course and obtained a fishing licence and are hopefully on the path to becoming a lifelong angler.

The ‘Take a Friend Fishing’ and ‘National Fishing Month’ initiatives, in association with the Angling Trust and the Angling Trades Association, continued in 2024 to 2025.

The Angling Trust also trained people who help introduce newcomers to angling. Using Environment Agency bursaries, we supported the training of 235 Level 2 licenced coaches and 94 event support volunteers. It was notable to report that these new Level 2 coaches included 26 females and 16 people from an ethnically diverse background.

We supported the Reel Education programme resulting in the engagement of 32 schools across the country and 6,276 pupils.

In 2024 to 2025 the Get Fishing Fund issued 83 grants funded by fishing licence income worth £158,500 in total.

Across all of the angling participation NASS3 contract work a total of £1.18 million match funding cash was secured plus a significant amount of in-kind resulting from the numerous volunteer hours. 

Get Fishing communications expanded throughout the year. Across all of the social media platforms engagement numbers for 2024 to 2025 stood at 218,200 with a reach totalling 7.8 million. Increased growth (measured by number of followers) by platform was reported as follows:

• Facebook was up 27% (34,000 followers at March 2025)
• Instagram 46% (13,600)
• TikTok 43% (32,000)
• YouTube 54% (9,100)

As part of the new NASS3 contract the Angling Trust offer predation control, managing invasive non-native species and club development advice under the umbrella of a ‘Fisheries Support Service’. The Fisheries Management Advisors responded to 959 requests for help relating to fish-eating mammal and bird problems during 2024 to 2025. This included attending meetings, site visits and telephone or email contact. The breakdown reported was 399 cormorant requests, 95 goosanders, 396 otter, 54 seal and 13 beaver enquiries.

The Fisheries Support Officers responded to 941 requests for help during 2024 to 2025. This included:

• attending meetings
• site visits
• volunteer events
• telephone or email contact

This related to:

• INNS and biosecurity advice – 351
• club development enquiries – 274
• a mixture of both – 316

Wild Trout Trust

We enjoy a long standing and productive partnership with the Wild Trout Trust. 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. 2024 to 2025 was the last year of the current arrangement so work was also undertaken to extend the agreement further.

We contributed £90,000 to fund advisory work and £45,000 for project costs.

In 2024 to 2025 they completed:

• 87 advisory visits and reports of recommendations for habitat improvement work
• 17 practical river improvement workshops
• 14 fisheries improvement projects
• activities that directly enhanced 230km of rivers across England

They produced 3 videos, including work on Malham Beck, Trent Headwaters and the Kennet. These are available on YouTube.

The Wild Trout Trust generated £702,000 co-funding (cash and in-kind). This represents a 1 to 5.2 gearing ratio for our investment (for every £1 we gave, they brought in another £5.20 through match funding).

The Riverfly Partnership

The Anglers’ Riverfly Monitoring Initiative (ARMI) is a citizen science initiative. Volunteers are trained to do standardised monitoring of aquatic invertebrates in rivers. They do this monthly and use it to assess water quality. The ARMI is hosted by the Freshwater Biological Association.

We provided the Riverfly Partnership £61,000 funding.

In 2024 to 2025 there were 1,975 active sampling Riverfly volunteers (an increase of 62%) who:

• uploaded 7,753 survey records to ARMI database (up 65%)
• monitored 1,691 sites (up 57%) across 696 rivers (up 52%) and 246 catchments (up 66%)
• passed on 46 trigger level alerts (indicating a possible pollution impact)
• generated £741,468 in match funding

Riverfly underwent a significant expansion during 2024 to 2025 with the 2 new Esme Fairburn Foundation funded posts supporting activities across the whole of the UK. More website and database usage was reported, growth across all social media platforms and an increase in newsletter subscribers (now standing at 1,346 recipients).

Close collaboration with the Environment Agency’s citizen science pilot and the CASTCO work is helping to recognise the benefits of the project and future arrangements. A one year agreement was put in place for 2025 to 2026 until a longer term plan is fully determined.

5. Improvement projects

There are 2 types of projects funded directly by fishing licence income. They are:

• Angling Improvement Fund projects managed by the Angling Trust through the National Angling Strategic Services contract
• Fisheries Improvements Programme projects managed by local Environment Agency teams

Other Environment Agency projects provide benefits to fisheries most notably the Water Environment Improvement Fund that use grant in aid from central government.

In projects to improve fisheries, in total we spent:

• £1.3 million of fishing licence income
• £15.5 million from other Environment Agency sources
• £23.2 million of other funding

Angling Improvement Fund

There were 77 projects funded during the year. There were 2 themes:

• protection of fisheries from predation by otters and cormorants (39 projects)
• invasive non-native species control and biosecurity measures (38 projects)

The funding for Angling Improvement Fund projects came from:

• licence income – £255,819
• match funding including cash from partners, match funding grants or the ‘in kind’ time of volunteers – £423,930

See the publication summary page for a map showing the locations of projects.

Fisheries Improvement Programme projects

There were 250 projects completed during the year. Working with 277 partners, we:

• improved 58km of river fisheries and protected a further 3km
• improved 204ha of stillwater habitat and created a further 22ha 
• repaired or constructed such as platforms and easy access pathways at 255 angling facilities
• benefited 179,530 anglers from this work

The funding of Fisheries Improvement Programme projects came from:

• fishing licence income – £1,075,000
• match funding – £1,207,601

See the publication summary page for a map showing the locations of projects.

Water Environment Improvement Fund

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

Working with 1,437 partners, we:

• enhanced 617km of rivers
• protected 471km of rivers
• built 10 fish and eel pass improvements
• removed 25 weirs and barriers

The funding for Water Environment Improvement Fund projects was:

• £15,526,325 from Environment Agency funding (not fishing licence income)
• £21,499,240 from match funding

6. Coarse fish stocking

We run a coarse fish hatchery at Calverton near Nottingham. This is funded by fishing licence income. This rears fish to help:

• replenish stocks after an environmental incident
• kick-start the recovery of fisheries after they have recovered from long term issues, for example pollution

In 2024 to 2025 the National Coarse Fish Rearing Unit at Calverton stocked 478,937 fish into rivers and stillwaters around the country. This was made up of the following species:

• Barbel – 136,150
• Bream – 48,274
• Chub – 54,830
• Crucians – 25,915
• Dace – 47,420
• Grayling – 48,359
• Roach – 86,190
• Rudd – 23,300
• Tench – 40,050

The area breakdown for fish received was:

• Anglian – 144,750
• Midlands – 75,990
• North East – 141,820
• North West – 25,900
• South East – 83,569
• South West – 38,459

There were 357,149 fish introduced into rivers and 153,339 introduced into stillwaters.

In addition to the 510,488 one- and two-year-old fish, just under 2 million advanced reared larvae were also stocked out into the wild.

7. National Fisheries Laboratory

We operate a National Fisheries Laboratory, based in Brampton, Cambridgeshire, which is largely funded through fishing licence income.

The laboratory does vital work to identify, monitor and limit the impact of current and future threats to fisheries and the aquatic environment. These threats are from both fish disease and non-native fish species.

The laboratory’s work:

• is pivotal to the ongoing monitoring and surveillance of the health status of fish populations in England
• informs fishery management actions, advice, and regulation

The laboratory’s work involves:

• mortality investigations and support for fisheries incidents
• health checks
• fish ageing analysis
• state of the art diagnostics to identify freshwater fish pathogens and non-native fish species
• provision of technical advice, training and support to our staff and stakeholders

In 2024 to 2025 the National Fisheries Laboratory:

• assessed 144 fish mortality events related to potential fish disease incidents
• did full fish disease diagnostic investigations into fish kills at 42 fisheries
• did 28 health checks to enable safe stocking of over half a million fish
• did 41 laboratory investigations to support national projects for high priority species or risks to fisheries, for example critical eel passage and protection, and emerging disease surveillance
• provided response and expert support for the identification, monitoring, management, risk assessment and regulation of 3 priority non-native fish species, new and emerging pathogens and a range of existing pathogens
• analysed over 3,500 sets of fish scales to determine the age structure and performance of fish populations, including nearly 800 scales obtained from stillwaters to inform better fishery management
• did 66 additional age surveys to inform fish disease incidents and other investigations 
• provided advice, training, guidance and support to internal staff and external stakeholders
• developed new and improved diagnostic techniques to detect existing and novel fish and pathogens 

8. National Fish Movements team

The National Fish Movements team is based in Brampton, Cambridgeshire, and is mainly funded through fishing rod licence income.

The team is a national customer-facing team responsible for the administration, processing and issue of fish movement permissions. The service is integral to the regulation of fisheries. It works to protect native fish stocks and the wider aquatic environment from adverse impacts associated with inappropriate fish introductions or removals of fish into or from the wild (excluding fish farms).

The team’s services for internal and external customers include: 

• issuing fish movement permissions for the introduction and keeping of fish
• fish removal authorisations (including crayfish)
• authorisations and licences for commercial fisheries (salmon, sea trout, eel, elver, smelt and lamprey)
• supporting fisheries enforcement
• providing technical advice

The team collects fisheries exploitation data (catch returns) and publishes the annual salmonid and freshwater fisheries statistics for England and Wales. 

In 2024 to 2025 the team:

• maintained 6,997 issued permits to introduce and or keep fish
• issued 785 new permits to introduce or keep fish
• issued 1,928 Section 27A authorisations to remove fish and crayfish
• issued 53 commercial salmon and sea trout licences
• issued 95 commercial elver authorisations
• issued 29 commercial eel authorisations
• collated and reported on 13,845 salmon and sea trout rod catch returns

9. Enforcement

We make sure anglers comply with regulations to protect fish stocks, such as during the close season.

In 2024 to 2025 we:

• checked 60,320 fishing licences
• issued 2,831 offence reports
• successfully prosecuted 769 anglers for fishing without a licence

It can take up to 6 months to bring a case to prosecution. The number of prosecutions does not necessarily reflect the number of people issued offence reports during this financial year.

The percentage of anglers who did not buy a licence and got caught by our enforcement officers was 4.69%. In total £132,095 was issued in penalties against anglers over the year. The average penalty received was £171.78.

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 736 volunteers, as of 31 March 2025.

Voluntary bailiffs:

• did 16,631 patrols
• gave 43,705 volunteer hours on the bank
• did 186 joint patrols with the Environment Agency
• did 102 joint patrols with the police
• submitted 1,021 incident reports to the Environment Agency, police and other agencies
• submitted 432 intelligence logs to the Environment Agency and police

Forty one police forces have joined Operation Leviathan and Traverse initiatives as part of the Fisheries Enforcement Support Service.

10. Fisheries incident response

We responded to 224 incidents involving dead or dying fish.

Number of incidents and fish killed

Cause	Number of incidents	Number of fish killed	Percentage of incidents	Percentage of fish killed
Pollution	9	200	4.0	0.7
Fish disease	18	752	8.0	2.3
Warm or dry weather or algae	59	5,767	26.3	17.6
Habitat damage	2	79	0.9	>0.0
Illegal fishing	16	154	7.1	0.5
Fishery management	20	2,935	8.9	9.0
Other causes	90	22,091	40.2	67.4
Not identified	10	814	4.6	2.5
Total	224	32,792	100.0	100.0

11. Monitoring

Monitoring of fish populations helps us to:

• inform our management decisions
• report on the state of the water environment

We do surveys either every year, 2 years, 3 years or 6 years. The frequency depends on why we are collecting information at the site. Not every water body is monitored for fish. We prioritise those:

• with angling interest
• considered at most risk

During 2024 to 2025 we did 1,809 fish stock surveys. They were carried out by the following methods:

• Electric fishing – 1,718

• Fyke netting – 2

• Hydroacoustic – 27

• Seine netting – 62

You can view our data collected on fisheries surveys by visiting Environment Agency Ecology & Fish Data Explorer.

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

In 2024, for England’s 42 principal salmon rivers, we classified:

• 2 ‘not at risk’

• 3 ‘probably not at risk’

• 2 ‘probably at risk’

• 35 ‘at risk’

Salmon populations in England remain in a critical state.

For England’s 44 principal sea trout rivers, we classified:

• 6 ‘not at risk’

• 5 ‘probably not at risk’

• 23 ‘probably at risk’

• 10 ‘at risk’

See the publication summary page for a map showing the status of salmon and sea trout rivers.

The declared salmon rod catch for England was 5,199 salmon, which was 20% higher than 2023 (4,340).

The declared sea trout rod catch in England was 7,450, which was 3% lower than 2023 (7,667).

If you would like to find out more:

• we provide a detailed report on the status of salmon stocks across England and Wales in the Assessment of Salmon Stocks and Fisheries, England and Wales 2024

• you can find information on rod catches from individual rivers in Salmonid and freshwater fisheries statistics for 2024

12. Research and development

Our Chief Scientist’s Group, National Fisheries Service and National Fisheries Laboratory use science to make sure we have a rigorous evidence base to support regulation and sustainable fisheries management.

We carry out our own research but also work in partnership, where we can achieve shared research objectives in a cost-effective manner. The Chief Scientist’s Annual Review 2024 provides further information on the breadth of science across our organisation, much of which will directly or indirectly benefit our fisheries.

Between April 2024 and March 2025, we were engaged in various projects to improve our understanding of issues affecting fish populations. These included:

Strategic review of data and information on coarse fish in rivers

Coarse fish survey data, from 1980 to 2023 were examined for 17 rivers across England to describe the status and trends over time in populations of major coarse fish species. This work will increase our understanding of how coarse fisheries may have changed and inform thinking around monitoring programmes.

Movement ecology of river fish in fragmented wetlands

We studied the influence of biomanipulation and saline intrusion on the recruitment and movements of bream and pike in the River Bure, with Bournemouth University. Movements of coarse fish over fish passes were also assessed. Saline incursion occurs naturally when tides and winds combine to drive salt water from the North Sea into the Broadland rivers including the Bure. Such incidents may occur more often as our climate changes.

Analysis of coarse fish growth rates across England

The National Fisheries Laboratory conducted a comprehensive analysis of coarse fish growth rates in England, using data collected between 2005 to 2025. This investigation was used to establish standardised growth of our riverine fish species, enabling us to better assess the performance of fish populations against national standards. This enables us to identify fisheries that may be underperforming and implement targeted management strategies to support their recovery.

Investigation into the potential impacts of stocking triploid brown trout in southern chalk rivers

Teams across the Environment Agency have worked together with local anglers to study farmed triploid trout released into the River Test and River Avon catchments. Individually numbered external markers were attached to 2,700 triploids and the number and location of recaptures recorded. Various techniques were trialled to learn more about the diet and movements of stocked fish, including analysis of the chemistry of trout scales. Catching stocked brown trout in southern chalk streams forms a successful business model for fisheries and this work will help inform best practice stocking for triploid brown trout.

Water temperature projections for England’s rivers

The Chief Scientist’s Group used projected monthly mean daytime river water temperatures up to 2079 to examine, at a national scale, when and where water temperatures may exceed critical levels for salmon and grayling.

Review of salmon stock assessment methodologies

A review of all aspects of our salmon stock assessment methods and the management decision structures which underpin our fishery exploitation management measures as well as other catchment management actions. This work will report in 2025 to 2026 and is a collaboration with the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (Cefas) and Natural Resources Wales.

Minimising eel entrainment

National Fisheries Services and the National Fisheries Laboratory continued to improve our understanding of fish and eel behaviour to assess the effectiveness of existing and new technologies for minimising entrainment at pumping stations, working with the University of Hull. We also examined the attractant or deterrent effects of different light sources and intensities on glass eel with the University of Southampton. We began the development of a method that allows us to determine length, weight, and head width measurements for glass eel from photographs taken in the field, working with Bristol University’s Bioimaging Facility. This will help inform regulation regarding screen mesh sizes.

Eel migration

It is important to understand the entire life cycle of eel to aid our efforts to recover their population. This includes researching factors which may affect the number of larvae reaching our shores, and the number of adults reaching spawning grounds. Working with Bournemouth University and other partners, we studied the otoliths of glass eels to understand the timing of the oceanic migration of eel from their spawning grounds to English and European estuaries and assessed their recruitment success in freshwaters. We also tracked yellow and silver eels from freshwater into estuaries, coastal waters and the ocean to assess their movements and spawning migration success. We have been developing an automatic counter which uses Artificial Intelligence to count elvers at eel passes, giving us a better insight into migration timings, environmental cues and eel pass design. We studied the movements of eels in reservoirs with the Zoological Society of London, to optimise trap and transport of silver eels and increase the number able to migrate to sea.

Eel Pass Design and Optimisation

Following research carried out by the Zoological Society of London, National Fisheries Services began a long-term set of operational field trials to better understand how the findings of laboratory flume trials could be applied to improve eel passes. Video monitoring of a modified pass took place through 2024 which demonstrated improved performance. Minor amendments will be made to the design and monitoring repeated in 2025.

Investigating the emergence of Red Skin Disease in wild salmon

We have been working with partner institutions across the UK to improve understanding of Red Skin Disease – an emerging condition of wild salmon. This has involved detailed diagnostic investigations and the development of a severity guide to raise awareness of the disease and standardise reporting. Recent collaborations between Environment Agency and Cefas have revealed a novel virus which could be a candidate for RSD. Work is underway to enable detection of this virus in blood samples and even mucus and water, enabling us to monitor the condition more widely in our rivers. 

Understanding future fish disease risks

The introduction and spread of novel diseases can pose a significant threat to the health and performance of our fisheries. We have been working with partners in UK, Asia and Europe to identify some of the pathogens that are emerging elsewhere in the world that could pose a future risk to our own fish species and populations. This horizon scanning exercise will help us to improve the detection and management of new diseases, helping us better protect the health and resilience of our fisheries. 

Developing eDNA tools to improve monitoring of non-native species

Experts in our monitoring laboratories have been working with specialists in our Chief Scientist Group to develop methods to detect harmful non-native species and pathogens in water. These approaches involve detecting the genetic material shed from these organisms (known as environmental DNA or eDNA) to assess distribution in our rivers and lakes. These methods are also being used to underpin our management or eradication of certain high-risk species.