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Wainsford Egg Box Project - River Fowey

Paul Eliot

The project was set up in 2000 as an attempt to sustain salmon stocks pending habitat and other improvements on the river. It followed a long term decline in numbers of salmon returning from the sea, very much in common with other salmon rivers throughout the British Isles. It was inspired by trials carried out by the Westcountry Rivers Trust in 1999 on the river Tamar. These trials were more experimental than intended to be an ongoing management tool.

The underlying concept of the project is that wild stocks are struggling to produce adequate juvenile numbers, due to degradation of the River Fowey by massive drainage works carried out by farmers high on the Bodmin Moor headwaters. These works were carried out to drain wetlands thus enabling more cattle to be ranched and more Government (DEFRA) subsidy claimed. Thousands of tons of sand now migrate down the river each year, smothering salmon spawning sites. The damage to the Moor is in many ways irreparable with peat bogs lost and increased flooding downstream a common feature, but we can only try to deal with the impacts on the fish population.

The egg box is a simple device which forces water upwards through gravel where the eggs are placed and the “upwelling” water keeps the eggs oxygenated and alive until hatching.

Our first consideration was obtaining salmon as brood stock. A strong desire not to deplete the natural stock was satisfied by using rod-caught fish only, they would otherwise have been served up as dinner! Local anglers took to the idea , along with visitors to the area on holiday and this year we held 28 adult fish in tanks until ripe for spawning. This took from one to three months and the eggs were then stripped from the females , fertilised and placed in the egg boxes for incubation. 70,000 were seeded from Fowey stock plus another 50,000 from the River Camel. All the latter eggs have been returned to that river.

With the first fry now hatching, we are planning release of the fry into the river system. It is important to spend time managing and improving the “in-river” habitat to support the increased numbers of fish. There is little point in placing fish where the food supply is inadequate. We therefore coppice trees to allow more light to the river. This enables plant life to flourish and invertebrate populations to sustain the little fish through the first feeding months. Light also promotes plant growth which stabilises river banks and reduces the sediment inputs which so damage spawning. Our farmer friends fence river banks keeping damaging cattle away from the spawning fish and a general “upwards” spiral of the whole system is created.

Why is this important? Forgetting for a moment the environmental issues, we begin to exploit a huge advantage that Cornwall enjoys in terms of revenue generated through Angling. We have the latest season for salmon in the country (season closes 15th December) and also the last real stronghold of migratory fish in England. Sea trout and salmon are in catastrophic decline throughout the rest of the country.
What we now need to do is awaken the local authorities to the tourist potential of our two main rivers – the Fowey and the Camel. For so long they have been used as drains by the Highways people and as a source of Cornwall’s drinking water (The Fowey) with no real concern, awareness or frankly even basic understanding of the potential value of the resource to the local economy. We will change all that once fish numbers are increased to a fraction of what they were just a few years ago and Cornwall takes its share of the £ multi-billion angling industry that exists worldwide.

The Hatchery at Wainsford has been financed by the Fowey River Association , supported by the Environment Agency and local riparian owners. With ongoing success we desperately need help from local business and visitor anglers to maintain the momentum into the future.

LET’S ALL PULL TOGETHER in restoring the bountiful wildlife of Devon & Cornwall’s rivers! – the last stronghold of migratory fish in England.