30/10/02
FROM THE CENTRE FOR ECOLOGY AND HYDROLOGY
The PAC President, Dave Lumb, recently
contacted me about the concerns of some pike anglers over the long-term pike monitoring
programme on Windermere. These scientific studies are nowadays carried out by
the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (CEH), although some anglers may remember
that they used to be performed by the Institute of Freshwater Ecology (IFE) and
the Freshwater Biological Association (FBA). As the scientist now responsible
for this programme, I take such concerns very seriously and so I am grateful to
be given this opportunity to make a response. Similar concerns in the late 1990s
resulted in an article in Pikelines by me and a colleague (Winfield &
Paxton, 1998), contacts between me and PAC, and the presence of a PAC-appointed
observer during sampling in 1999. I think that it is pretty obvious that we are
as open and frank about this work as possible. We do not hold any secrets! The
most important fact to emphasise is that the programme on Windermere is not a
pike cull. Although it began life as such during the Second World War, it subsequently
developed into a scientific gillnetting monitoring programme with much lower catches
and has been operated in this way for the last few decades. The numbers of fish
now removed each year have no significant effect on pike abundance or size in
Windermere, and in fact in recent years pike in the lake have become more abundant
and larger. The use of gill nets as a sampling
technique is obviously a sensitive issue, and I can understand why. The main reason
for the use of this particular method is that we have to stay with the original
sampling technique if the programme is to be continued. While we can make allowances
for the effects on catches of lower sampling effort, which we have now reduced
to a minimum, it is impossible to make equivalent allowances for a shift to another
sampling technique. If such a change was made, it would effectively end the almost
60 year long data set. At a time when our environment faces great pressures from
a variety of sources, such a termination would be extremely short-sighted. Long-term
datasets of any lake fish populations are extremely rare and that for the pike
in Windermere is unique in its duration and quality. Although
it still has much to tell us, the Windermere long-term pike monitoring programme
has been crucial in developing our understanding of the biology and management
of this important species in large lakes. For example, the fact sheet library
on this website frequently refers to the work performed at Windermere. In addition
to increasing our understanding of pike themselves, this research has also helped
us to understand the role of pike in lake fish communities. Scientists across
Europe now agree that the pike plays a vital role in the healthy functioning of
lake fish communities and their habitats. I do appreciate that much of this information
and understanding is inaccessible to pike anglers, and so I am happy to undertake
to write an article or articles for Pikelines to show how the work on Windermere
fits into this bigger picture. Finally, I would
like to emphasise that I personally recognise the pike as an integral and highly
desirable part of the Windermere fish community. I have no desire or intention
to cull the Windermere pike population. Angling fortunes for any fish species
will always wax and wane as a function of many natural and man-made factors, but
I can reassure PAC members that the Windermere long-term pike monitoring programme
is not one of them. Reference Winfield,
I. J. & Paxton, C. G. M. (1998). The Windermere long-term pike monitoring
programme. Pikelines 81, 19-21. Ian J Winfield
CEH Windermere
30 October 2002
Webmsater's
note (03/11/04):
The Pikelines reference
refered to above can now be read here.
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