Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent assessment his Department has made of fish stocks in the River Wyre.

To assess the health of salmon rivers in England, the Environment Agency carries out annual assessments against salmon stock targets using angler rod catch data. In recent years there has been a downward trend in the health of Atlantic salmon on the River Wyre and our projections suggest this trend will likely continue. Regrettably this is in line with many other Atlantic salmon rivers in the UK and we are seeing sustainable salmon stocks fall across the country over recent years. In response, the Environment Agency and its partners launched in 2015 the Salmon 5 Point Approach.

The most recent assessment (2016) placed the River Wyre in the ‘at risk’ category, and a 5 year prediction of the same category it may be necessary to impose some form of fishery regulation. The Environment Agency undertakes juvenile fish monitoring in the River Wyre. In 2016 a total of 15 sites were surveyed throughout the catchment. The majority of the sites were monitoring juvenile salmonids, while those in the lower part of the catchment monitor the coarse fish populations. The results indicate that the salmon and trout are still present in the upper parts of the catchment in average populations. A mixture of coarse fish were found in the lower half of the catchment in average populations.