For the last year we have been hearing about the terrible state of British rivers overrun as they are by the waste water from the water companies that are supposed to protect British waters. But while the fat cats sit and pour over their shares and returns little thought is given to the fish that frequent these waters.
I have no doubt the fat cats like a plate of fish now and then, but at what price? The sacrifice of their income? Probably not.
The legislation is in place, but the will from central government is not there to enforce it, and instead meekly accepts the ‘overflow through excess rainfall’ excuse. No thought given to the lack of investment to provide a modern efficient water cleansing system.
How many stop to think of the plight of the fish?
Salmon young are born in the headwaters of the rivers, amongst green meadows and languidly lolling trees. They find their way downstream to the estuary and off on the grand adventure of the open seas. How long do they wander the oceans? According to one report they might be in the ocean for from one to seven years. Finally the mature fish feels the need to return to its breeding grounds and, using its acute sense of smell, follows the current’s stream back to the river from which it was born.
Consider the Teifi river in Ceredigion, what used to be called by the anglicised Cardiganshire. I quote ‘Welsh Water has admitted illegally spilling untreated sewage at dozens of treatment plants for years.’ (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-67077510). One of these spillage points is at the very mouth of the Teifi as it enters Cardigan Bay.
The poor salmon, breathing as they do through gills, swim with their mouths open looking for the familiar taste of home and their breeding grounds. What they are greeted with is the foul taste of p*ss and sh*t which they are expected to swim through to reach the – hopefully – unpolluted waters beyond. Of course we know that rivers beyond are polluted by the run off from the poor agricultural practices encouraged by banks and big business, of over fertilisation and pesticides. In the 3, 4, or 7 years the fish have been away the waters will have become unrecognisable to the returning wanderers.
Is it not understood that if the fish stop breeding in these rivers there is no impulse for them to return to them in the future? Once lost the fish will not return.
‘Oh’, cry the pseudo-envioronmentalists, ‘we can soon reseed the waters with fresh eggs. They will soon breed again.’ But I doubt it. I don’t believe these well-meaning people have considered the lack of culture the young they introduce will suffer from. ‘Culture is fine arts and opera. Fish don’t have opera and theatre.’, comes the cry. But culture is learned behaviour. Young fish learn from older fish which rivers to flock to and at what seasons. They learn where to seek food and shelter. This is culture. Instinct is another garbage term invented by science to cover ‘anything we cannot explain by our current ideas’. Like shizophrenia in medical practice.
As for the rest, consider, the next time you have a high evening out in the city attending a performance of your favourite artist, as you eat your salmon broquettes that you are ingesting a creature that has absorbed with both mouth and gills the polluted waters this decadent species to which we belong is imposing on them. See if that makes you feel well.
