Moratorium on hydroelectric schemes demanded to protect salmon and trout
By Lewis Smith
February 02 2012 Lewis Smith
Brown trout
A moratorium on hydroelectric schemes should be introduced immediately to protect stocks of salmon, trout and other fish, anglers have demanded.
Hydroelectric schemes are doing untold damage to migratory fish and construction should be halted while research is carried out to determine the scale of the problem.
Paul Knight, chief executive of the Salmon and Trout Association, fears ministers and officials at the Department for Energy and Climate Change are so determined to add to the UK’s green energy generators that they will press ahead despite the potential damage to fish stocks.
He demanded an immediate halt to construction: “They should stop it now. They should stop it until we know what the safe level is.”
Salmon, trout and eels are among the species most exposed to damage by hydro power because as they travel along rivers they can find their way blocked or simply get chopped up by the turbines.
But the extent of the damage done to fish populations remains uncertain because so little research has been carried out. The Environment Agency and the Game and Wildlife Trust (GWCT) are among the organisations attempting to rectify the problem but it is likely to be several years before a clear understanding emerges.
In the meantime about 60 new hydroelectric schemes are being approved by planning authorities each year, making it increasingly hard for migratory fish to reach their spawning grounds or for smolts of fish including salmon and trout to make their way downstream. In total there are up to 400 hydroelectric schemes already in place.
Mr Knight, speaking in to MPs and other guests in Westminster Hall at an event organised by the GWCT, said the biggest problem isn’t fish getting sliced up by turbines but the fact they find their way up or down a river blocked.
For spawning salmon and trout it can severely reduce their breeding success, for the young smolt it can prevent an entire generation from getting downstream to areas where they can grow to adulthood.
Smolt wait at obstacles until they are in a big enough shoal to have the confidence to tackle getting past an obstruction such as a hydro turbine, and if too few congregate it is thought they just stay where they are. They only have “a window” of about 20 days in which they need to get downstream and each obstruction delays them.
He said that with the Environment Agency having identified about 5,000 potential sites for hydroelectric generators there is the fear that the 128 catchment areas in England and Wales could have up to 70 projects – an average of almost 40 each - creating obstacles in the rivers.
A third of the hydroelectric schemes introduced in 2010 are thought to have had no impact on fish while almost half blocked the passage of fish and were required to include special passes to let them through.
Low water levels in the UK’s rivers were also addressed by the event, especially the effects of abstraction to supply homes and businesses.
The Kennet was among the rivers named as suffering unseasonally low water levels. Richard Benyon, the environment minister, told the meeting he hopes the White Paper announced last year will address the “horrendous” problem.
Among the measures he wants to see in place is a requirement that developers meet high levels of sustainability which will mean they have to include measure such as water-saving devices and grey-water systems in every house and factory they build. “If we can get sustainable development to be what we know it to mean, that is a really big win,” he said.
« Return to the news index
Be the first to comment on this story using the form below