About NACA

History of NACA - The Early Years

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Created on Thursday, 08 May 2008 07:13

Last Updated on Friday, 06 March 2009 13:48

Written by Administrator

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Throughout the world, conservation of the environment has become a major issue. The planet we once took for granted has proved to be a complex, delicate place, and no matter where we look, we find signs of environmental degradation but as concerned individuals, most of us feel helpless to do anything about it.

Anglers, you would think, at least have the perfect escape, go fishing! But no, when we get to the river, we find even more environmental degradation. Polluted water, over-abstracted flows, dredged banks and canalized channels, riparian trees ripped out and lack of habitat, etc., all leading to diminishing fish stocks. Prior to the 1960's Norfolk was home to some of Britain's finest fishing. The Broads were Mecca to anglers throughout the country, and the upper rivers such as the Wensum, Waveney and the Bure were famous for catches of specimen roach but all that was to change.

Throughout the 1970's and 80's an appalling decline took place on these waters. Phosphates from sewage collected in the Broads over-enriching the water and causing algae to proliferate. This limited the food chain and in turn inhibited fish growth. On the Thurne Broads a gradual salination of the water caused by deep drainage of the coastal marshes provided the perfect environment for the toxic algae Prymnesium to bloom, which resulted in numerous massive fish kills. And with the same drainage systems lowering water levels throughout the broads, and sea levels rising, saltwater tides were increasingly able to push ever further into the broads with fatal consequences for any freshwater fish trapped in its path.

The Fenland Drains also started to decline as fisheries, affected by water quality, drainage management and the introduction of an alien species, the zander. The Waveney was soon added to this list being contaminated by a continuous seepage of pig slurry that gradually destroyed its fish stocks.

As if this lot wasn't enough, the degradation of Norfolk's rivers continued as water authority engineers systematically dredged the life out of the upper rivers in order to improve land drainage, thereby destroying important fish habitats and spawning sites. Within 20 years Norfolk's fishing had declined into a shadow of itself and as all the time new threats were being set against it, eventually, the county's anglers were forced to fight back.