In 2021, we were delighted to pledge our support for the Angling Trust’s ‘Anglers Against Pollution’ campaign to keep Britain’s rivers, lakes and coastal waters free from pollution. As part of our commitment to 5% for Nature, we donated 5% of every online sale from our PRO Collection to support the launch.
As we continue to support the Anglers Against Pollution throughout 2022, this time through the profits from the sales of our Orvis AAP Caps and through events such as Fish in the reads, it is great to read the updates and plans for the donations so far.
Update from the Angling Trust:
Anglers Against Litter
Over 25 professional litter picking kits for Angling clubs have been funded by Orvis. The Angling Clubs who receive these kits commit to regular river litter picks, which will mean that over the course of the next two years around 500 miles of river will be cleared of plastic pollution.
Key report on the Water Industry produced and delivered to Government
In September 2021 The Angling Trust and Salmon & Trout Conservation (S&TC) delivered a major report – ‘Time to Fix The Broken Water Sector’ – to Government on the management and regulation of the failing water and sewerage sector. It aims to outline priorities for the industry and the regulator OFWAT which Ministers are obliged to publish ahead of each five-year investment round.
The report calls for the long-overdue investment needed to ensure that the UK’s water infrastructure, no longer fit for purpose, can meet the demands of climate change and population growth without environmental compromise. It’s a manifesto for change and shows clearly that it is more than possible to provide water and sanitary services without polluting our precious rivers. The Angling Trust’s work on this report was funded and supported by Orvis UK through their 5% for Nature scheme which supports the work of the Anglers Against Pollution Campaign.
Angling Club Water Quality Monitoring Survey
This survey was carried out during the late summer and autumn of 2022. Our goal was to understand how engaged angling clubs across the country currently are with water quality monitoring work and investigate their appetite for to become involved in an Angling Trust led, national monitoring programme. A report on our findings (badged as supported by Orvis) will be published in early December.
Orvis funding helps to secure an important amendment to the Environment Bill.
After a concerted campaign where anglers across the country were encouraged to email their MP’s to complain about the removal of an amendment to the Environment Bill that would have seen Water Companies forced to act on sewage discharges, we were delighted to see a partial u-turn from the government and new legislation come into place alongside a new major investigation into sewage pollution by the Environment Agency and OFWAT. Speaking about the positive news John Cheyne of Angling Trust said:
“Anglers were at the forefront of pushing for change and that pressure, alongside a swell of interest from the general public, made the difference in the end. It’s heartening to see the work of the Anglers Against Pollution Campaign making a real difference at Government level and we couldn’t have achieved this step forward without the support that Orvis give us. There is still much to be done to clean up our rivers, but this is an important milestone.”
Orvis Funding set to help launch Anglers Water Quality Monitoring Project
The Anglers Against Pollution Monitoring Project has now progressed to the design phase. We have agreed the main aspects of water quality we will be looking to assess is the level of phosphate and nitrate levels in rivers. We will, in addition, record information around dissolved oxygen, temperature and electrical conductivity. The monitoring will be done by angling clubs as grassroots level.
The purpose is to build up a picture of water quality across England in important fishing areas. The development of this citizen science database will then allow us to use this information to highlight the condition of individual rivers at a catchment level, and to lobby for further action and improvement from local and central government, the regulators, water companies and landowners.
The monitoring network is based on existing proven citizen science programmes. We will be working closely with Cardiff University, who will support the training needs of the project and provide a broader context through data collected from other projects. Cardiff should also be able to provide more-in depth analysis to support our findings.
The design phase will be completed in early 2022.
In the spring of 2022 the project will move to its pilot phase. We will look to pilot the project across two river catchments, one in the south and one in the north of England. This will allow us to test the concept and processes we have development, check and revise our training and education programme, test the data gathering and analysis process, and test the management and logistical aspect of the project.
Post the pilot, the project will be revised with a view to providing the opportunity for all Angling Trust member clubs to become involved later in 2022.
