Trust’s purpose
To protect and enhance the water environments of the Ribble catchment for the benefit of current and future generations.
In 1997, in an attempt to help the flora and wildlife recover to their former glory, the Ribble Catchment Conservation Trust was formed by local people.
Over the last 120 years, Industrial pollution, inadequate sewage treatment, water abstraction and the changes in agricultural practice have caused severe habitat damage to the Ribble and its tributaries. Water quality and habitat have been affected to such an extent that the wildlife the river supports has been put under threat.
In recent years, water quality in our urban rivers such as the Calder and Darwen has improved, but the smaller streams of the Ribble and Hodder have deteriorated – the intensity of modern agriculture being the main source of the problem. Diffuse pollution is particularly damaging to small streams. Small amounts of pesticides and herbicides can greatly harm wildlife.
The becks are the arteries of the system. They are the nursery areas for wildlife, but being small they are much more vulnerable to pollution and physical damage.
SALMON DECLINE IN THE RIVER CATCHMENT
In 1867, 15,000 salmon were caught by the Ribble netsmen. In 1868, the catch had dropped to 12,900 salmon, but by 1900 only 34 salmon were taken. In recent years, there has been some recovery with the netsmen averaging 170 fish p.a. The rod catch averages 800 p.a., of which over 60% are safely returned to continue their journey to the spawning grounds.
A comparison of the 1992 and 1998 surveys of juvenile salmon stocks in the Hodder and its tributaries demonstrates the deterioration in the recruitment of salmon:
• In 1992 salmon fry (newly hatched salmon) were absent from 46% of sites surveyed
• In 1998 salmon fry were absent from 82% of sites surveyed
• In 92 salmon parr (developing young salmon 2-3″ long) were absent from 46% of sites surveyed. • In 98 salmon parr were absent from 64% of sites surveyed.
This clearly demonstrates one of the problems facing the salmon. The streams, which the eminent naturalist, Hugh Falkus, described as the river’s “smolt factories” are not producing sufficient fish to ensure the survival of the species – the salmon being Europe’s 10th most endangered species.
Salmon and other salmonid species are an excellent indicator of water quality and the health of our rivers in general. If their populations are in “good status”, the river can assumed to be so also.
EEL POPULATION CRASHES BY 99%
The salmon are not the only species under threat. Eels and dace have also suffered a dramatic decline. Recently, there has been a massive decline in the number of eels returning to our rivers.
The eel, like the salmon, lives alternately in freshwater and seawater, but, unlike the salmon, the eel spends its adult life in freshwater then swims down the river and is thought to migrate out to The Sargasso Sea to spawn.
This mass spawning produces vast numbers of larvae which drift/swim with the ocean currents across the Atlantic. These larvae then reach our rivers during the spring.
This huge decline has been linked to factors in the freshwater environment including land use and increased numbers of impassable barriers.
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