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WHAT’S WRONG WITH LAKE WINDERMERE AND THE RIVER LEVEN?

Written By: Patrick Arnold On Date: 8/10/2004 Windermere used to be one of the Country’s finest wild Brown Trout lakes. The short river Leven which flows out of the Lake at Newby Bridge was once famous for its Salmon and Sea Trout. Unfortunately, this is no longer the case. This deterioration has been continuously highlighted by anglers for some years. Much has been written including articles by the Author, Patrick Arnold. The plight of the Windermere Catchment was the subject of an excellent Documentary on TV shown by BBC1 North West in their Inside Out Programme on Monday 4th October 2004. The local Press has since followed this up well with further coverage still to come. Patrick Arnold played a pivotal role with the Producer of this Programme and was interviewed out on the water. This is an enormous subject and he will be writing a further article in the near future. Meanwhile the following is the Press Release issued by BBC 1 : What’s wrong with Windermere Inside Out, BBC ONE, Monday 4th October 2004, 7.30pm Poor water quality is killing off the fish population in one of Cumbria’s most popular lakes, according to a special Inside Out investigation. Windermere, the jewel in the Lake District’s crown, is being seriously affected by poor water quality. Quality levels have been recorded in some parts of the lake that cannot sustain fish life. Young salmon and trout have been found with damaged gills by the Environment Agency in the River Leven which has Windermere as its source. The Leven used to be the Lake District’s premier salmon and sea trout river. The Environment Agency is now conducting thorough tests in the area and confirms that fish numbers have plummeted. Patrick Arnold has been teaching people how to fish for salmon and trout in the Lake District for around 15 years. "Fish are a barometer of how your water quality is. If your water is healthy, fish are there and anglers are catching… but once your water quality goes your fish stocks deteriorate. Of course it isn't just the fish numbers that decrease. The river stock is part of a fragile ecosystem, so if you remove one part of the chain other animals are affected," he explains. Many local anglers set the alarm bells ringing many years ago when they first saw the changes in the river water. Patrick feels too little was done too late. "Now a lot is being done but it's a national tragedy that it has been allowed to get to this point," he says. The programme also reveals that reed beds which flourished in the lake twenty years ago have vanished, and the lake’s famed brown trout population has declined dramatically. A recent study showed that years of allowing treated sewage into the lake has taken its toll on water quality. Algae blooms grew on the nutrients in the sewage and reduced oxygen levels, which are vital for the survival of fish in the lake. Many of these problems have been resolved but experts are unsure why there are still areas of poor water quality in Windermere. One theory is that some of the problems stem from global warming. The Freshwater Biological Association has records which show water temperature levels are rising almost on a yearly basis and this is bound to affect fish stocks. But global warming probably doesn't explain the entire problem with the River Leven. "We haven't got one thing that we can point the finger at," admits Jeremy Westgarth from the Environment Agency, "We are looking at water quality, we're looking at habitat, we're looking at anything else in the area that may be affecting the stocks." Dr Roger Sweeting, the leading expert on Windermere, and Chief Executive of the Freshwater Biological Association, warns, "It may be too late in some instances… but we have to now think of the future and examine very critically what we are doing." Notes · PH levels of taken from Windermere and the River Leven by the Environment Agency at certain times of the year have been recorded at 9 and 10 - levels of high alkalinity, which won’t sustain fish life. The level should be around 7. · Studies have shown that the nearby River Kent, which is a similar river to the Leven but doesn't have Windermere as its feed, has recorded 8,000 salmon and trout this year. The River Leven recorded less than 1,000. For further information: have a look at the excellent coverage on the BBC website : www.bbc.co.uk/insideout/northwest - the whole story is called “A Watery Puzzle”. There is also a photo gallery with further copy. The coverage of this National Tragedy comes just as the Salmon & Trout Association have once more brought to everyone’s attention their deep concern about the serious condition of many of our Waters and that not enough is being done to address this dire state of affairs. Anyone requiring a copy of their most recent Press Release should contact Carmel Jorgensen - tel. no. 020 7283 5838 or e-mail : carmel@salmon-trout.org Their website is www.salmon-trout.org See Photo Gallery

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