9. City of London Thames Fishery Experiment, September 17, 2021

On 17 September 2021, the Fishery Experiment took place on the banks of the River Thames at Gravesend. This ‘experiment’ has been running for almost fifty years and records numbers, size and diversity of fish caught by teams of anglers over four hours.

 

I am grateful to Warden Martin Bigg who represented the Water Conservators’ Company and presented the Biodiversity Award. He recalls that ‘it was a very good day helped by warm dry weather, albeit that numbers had to be reduced to 10 teams as a Covid precaution. Eileen and I had a fascinating morning talking to the anglers of all ages, and local experts from the City of London Corporation and the Environment Agency. They explained how the diversity of species in the river had improved and changed in the life of the experiment but how the Thames was being threatened by climate change. This included the loss of Cod and the arrival of Mediterranean species due to increased water temperatures.’




Walbrook Warden Martin Bigg with one of the young people’s teams with a catch, and a picture of Martin and Eileen with two anglers on the Thames foreshore

 


Martin Bigg with Paul Priestley

 

‘Over lunch I presented the Biodiversity Prize to Paul Priestley of the Charles Stanley Angling Team with a winning catch of 2 Bass, 5 Flounder, 1 Pouting and 1 Whiting.’

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