成人快手

A WATERY PUZZLE

The River Leven's beauty masks a serious problem

LAKELAND GALLERY

Flowing out of Windermere, the Leven is one of the most idyllic rivers in England. Running through the spectacular Lakeland scenery it is a water-lovers dream, but as Inside Out North West discovers, looks can be deceiving.

The River Leven flows from the south Lake District to the sea at Morecambe Bay.

It has long been recognised as one of the premiere angling rivers in the country but something is going seriously wrong with the River Leven and the fish numbers have plummeted.

Inside Out's Peter Stevenson sets out to investigate why.

Changing times

John Chaplin has lived and fished in the Leven all is life, but now he is missing out on his passion due to the hugely depleted fish stocks.

"It's tragic from any point of view but as a fisherman it's even more sad of course," he says.

John Chaplin says the Leven used to be one of the best salmon rivers in England

According to John, much of the river life is either dead or dying.

"It does still look idyllic doesn't it... but that conceals the fact that all is not well," he sadly comments.

Back in the 1950s and 60s the River Leven was one of the premiere sea trout rivers in England with annual catches into the thousands. But those time are certainly in the past.

The problem with the Leven is that the quality of the water, at certain times of the year, is so poor that it can't sustain life.

Patrick Arnold has been teaching people how to fish for salmon and trout for around 15 years and has seen the changing face of his beloved river.

"Fish are a barometer of how your water quality is. If your water is healthy, fish are there and anglers are catching聟 but once your water quality goes your fish stocks deteriorate.

"Of course it isn't just the fish numbers that decrease. The river stock is part of a fragile ecosystem, so if you remove one part of the chain other animals are affected," he explains.

A problem arises

Many local anglers set the alarm bells ringing many years ago when they first saw the changes in the river water.

Patrick feels too little was done too late. "Now a lot is being done but it's a national tragedy that it has been allowed to get to this point," he says.

The Environment Agency are trying to crack the mystery of why the water quality is so low

The Environment Agency are now conducting thorough tests in the area.

The agency exclusively reveals to Inside Out that some young salmon and trout gills are being damagede due to the poor quality of the river water.

Jeremy Westgarth from the Environment Agency says, "We first noticed it when we were running the traps last year and we were catching fish in poor condition."

It was when the agency started conducting tests that they discovered the gill structures of some of the fish were developing incorrectly during growth.

Guilty party

But with a natural tragedy looming the question remains; what is causing the problem? The Environment Agency believes part of the problem could be coming from somewhere rather familiar.

Peter Stevenson followed the trail upriver, to the source of the River Leven - Windermere.

Situated in the heart of the Lake District, Windermere attracts millions of tourists who come to enjoy the spectacular surroundings.

The small but bustling towns of Windermere, Bowness and Ambleside offer visitors a choice of hundreds of places to stay and the easy access from the M6 makes this area one of the most popular holiday destinations in the country.

Yet even dating back to the 19th Century this has been one popular place! Ever since the Kendal and Windermere Rail Company built a branch line to Windermere people have been going there in droves.

But Windermere has its own problems. Once famous for its supply of brown trout, the lake's current fish stocks are rapidly declining.

You can still fish there, but the times of catching plenty are all but gone.

Dr Roger Sweeting is the leading expert on Windermere, and Chief Executive of the Freshwater Biological Association, which is an independent organisation set up to research and monitor sources of fresh water in Britain.

"We've been looking over the last couple of years now at particularly the migrating fish, the salmon, who come through here, go out to sea then come back again," he says.

When the fish move through the river in May, the biological and chemical changes are taking place. Roger Sweeting thinks that may have some affect on the fish's gills, which could put the fish at a great disadvantage when they are travelling back out to sea.

Unusual changes

The Freshwater Biological Association is ironically based on the shores of Windermere and has been keeping records about the lake for the last 70 years.

In that time they've noticed some unusual changes in Windermere.

Roger Sweeting finds it hard to explain the loss of reed beds on Windermere

"The lake at one time, even 20 to 30 years ago, was surrounded by reed beds," comments Roger.

Yet if you take a look around the lake now, there are no reed beds to be seen. Something obviously caused it, but what was it, and what effect has it had on the wildlife?

"When you lose massive stocks of coverage, such as reeds, it is bound to have an effect," says Roger.

"Fisherman complain that there are not as many brown trout, maybe the reeds were a hiding place for the trout. Maybe food for the fish was the insects that lived in the reed beds."

Science to the rescue

A recent study showed that years of allowing treated sewage into the lake has taken its toll on water quality.

Algae blooms grew on the nutrients in the sewage and reduced oxygen levels, which are vital for the survival of fish in the lake.

Many of these problems have been resolved but there are still areas of poor water quality being discovered in Windermere. A fact that is puzzling experts.

One theory is that some of the problems stem from global warming.

"It's another factor that is going to influence the survival of fish that like colder water," Roger says.

Fishermen are having to leave the shores of the Leven due to low fish stocks

And with proven records that show water temperature levels are rising almost on a yearly basis, this is bound to affect fish stocks.

But global warming probably doesn't explain the entire problem with the River Leven.

The Environment Agency checks the water quality and monitors the progress of fish in the river every day.

Studies have shown that the nearby River Kent, which is a similar river to the Leven but doesn't have Windermere as its feed, has recorded 8,000 salmon and trout this year. The River Leven recorded less that 1,000.

"We haven't got one thing that we can point the finger at," admits Jeremy Westgarth.

"We are looking at water quality, we're looking at habitat, we're looking at anything else in the area that may be affecting the stocks."

Looking to the future

It may seem far fetched to think that the only way to see certain fish at Windermere will be in aquariums, but if scientists can't identify what's going wrong in Windermere and the River Leven that may be the future.

"If things continue as they are we will lose the salmon, the trout fisherman will find less trout, the char fisherman will find less char.

"We've already lost the reed beds and we don't know why," warns Roger.

"It may be too late in some instances聟 but we have to now think of the future and examine very critically what we are doing."

Take a look at some of the stunning scenes around Windermere and the River Leven