R.Wensum Sayers Meadow

Fisheries

Sayers Meadow Habitat Restoration Project

Since the 1960s many English rivers have declined as fisheries as a result of the pressure of modern day lifestyles. Agricultural land drainage practices, overworked sewage works discharges, over abstraction of water and increased run off from urban developments have all had an impact. While many of the once grossly polluted rivers in the countries industrial areas have been cleaned up considerably, many of those in more rural areas have declined significantly. Nowhere has this been more noticeable than with the rivers of Norfolk, the Wensum, Waveney and Bure in particular.

In 1988 Norfolk Anglers Conservation Association took on 1.5 miles of the River Wensum in Norfolk as an experiment to see what they could do to improve the fishery. The services of Dr Richard Hey and Richard Smith from the University of East Anglia (UEA) were commissioned, who by combining their knowledge of environmental river engineering and fish population dynamics, were instructed to provide a practical plan to improve the habitat diversity of the river in order to increase it fish populations.

Richard Smith had undertaken a number of extensive surveys of non-tidal reaches of many Norfolk rivers which had convinced him that limited habitat was the primary problem behind their decline as fisheries. His research showed that some areas of the Wensum held good numbers of fish but others were almost barren while water quality remained consistently good.