Angling is one of the most popular outdoor pursuits, bringing many social and economic benefits. Every year, fishery owners and clubs introduce almost 700,000 fertile farmed trout into rivers and lakes to supplement stocks for anglers.

Under the new policy, infertile triploid brown trout will be used to stock these waters in a move to protect wild trout (including sea trout) stocks. The Environment Agency will stop giving consent to stock fertile farmed brown trout into rivers and most lakes in England and Wales from 2015. Targets have been set to encourage fishery managers to progressively switch to the use of infertile triploid fish to supplement trout stocks in these waters.

“Our research has shown that inter-breeding between farmed and wild brown trout lowers the ability of the offspring to survive in the wild, and could have serious implications for the future of the wild brown trout. This decision has been made following work with leading authorities on trout fisheries management and research, and an extensive consultation process,” Dafydd Evans, head of fisheries for the Environment Agency, said.

“This policy will make a real difference to the future of our wild brown trout. We have to make sure that any fish stocking does not damage the local trout population The ability to produce infertile trout is tried and tested and will provide fisheries with the stock they need without affecting the ability of wild trout and sea trout to thrive.

“We want to work with fishery owners and angling clubs as well as the fish farm industry to prepare for stocking triploid brown trout over the next seven years. We understand this is a big change for many, but we want to see the number of fertile farm-strain fish stocked into the wild gradually reduced to zero by 2015,” continued Dafydd Evans.

Around 140,000 triploid brown trout are already being stocked into rivers and lakes every year. These fish have been widely used by fishery owners over the last 10 years.

Stocking of the offspring of trout locally sourced from the wild will be allowed to continue as this does not impact on the native gene pool.

“This change to our stocking policy, along with our joint efforts with partners to clean up our rivers and lakes, improve and create new habitats for fish and improve river flow, will mean a really healthy future for the angling industry,” Dafydd Evans said.

www.fishupdate.com is published by Special Publications. Special Publications also publish FISHupdate magazine, Fish Farmer, the Fish Industry Yearbook, the Scottish Seafood Processors Federation Diary, the Fish Farmer Handbook and a range of wallplanners.

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