Great News for the Aquatic Life In Rivers and Streams

ACA Celebrates Sheep Dip U-Turn - A Massive Victory For Angling
The Anglers’ Conservation Association (ACA) is today celebrating an historic decision by the Veterinary Medicines Directorate (VMD) to suspend the sale of cypermethrin sheep dip in the UK, with immediate effect. Cypermethrin has caused catastrophic damage to the wildlife of river systems throughout the country. The ACA and the Salmon & Trout Association (S&TA) jointly called for a ban as long ago as 1997 when these dips became widely used. Only after the threat of legal action from the ACA, including judicial review, and concerted political pressure from the S&TA and others has the VMD agreed to relent.

The ACA: Used the Freedom of Information Act to force the VMD to disclose the existing Environmental Risk Assessments for cypermethrin submitted by manufacturers;

·Fought the VMD over the right of angling interests to participate in the re-authorisation process as required under the Aarhus Convention to which the UK is a signatory;

·Openly criticised as a sham the draft “Pollution Reduction Plan” which the ACA argues was intended to fudge the re-authorisation process by issuing advisory information which has largely failed for at least a decade;

·Instructed barristers to investigate bringing a multimillion pound claim directly against the manufacturers of cypermethrin sheep dip for damage to English and Welsh rivers and fishing rights. The ACA may still pursue this claim for the severe damage that has already been caused to date.

Mark Lloyd, ACA Executive Director, said: “We are delighted that many years of pollution by this sheep dip pesticide will now at last come to an end. This decision will have enormous benefits for wildlife, rural economies and damaged fish stocks. The process has highlighted serious shortcomings in the re-licensing process and the commitment of the VMD to public participation in decisions which affect the wider environment. The VMD has been at best opaque in its dealings with external organisations and has at times seemed to favour the interests of manufacturers before the health of our nation’s water resources.”

Synthetic pyrethroid (SP) chemicals, including cypermethrin, used in sheep dip are extremely toxic to aquatic invertebrate life when they get into rivers. Just a teaspoonful can cause almost total invertebrate kills for many miles downstream. Invertebrates are the principal food source of most fish, and many bird species.

The Centre for Environment Fisheries and Aquaculture Science Fisheries (CEFAS), an agency of DEFRA, stated in government-commissioned reports that these chemicals can have a direct effect on fish, more particularly on their ability to reproduce and on the embryo development stages. CEFAS stated that “the present levels of certain pesticides in the aquatic environment may be too high and as such may impose a significant biological risk to migratory salmonid populations” and that exposure “may significantly reduce the number of returning adults and compromise the spawning biomass of many populations”.

Sheep dip can find its way into rivers by a whole host of pathways: sheep walking into rivers after dipping; run-off from dripping sheep getting into drains and then streams; the disposal of used dip on land; effluent from fleece processing plants and accidental spillages.

The ACA was founded in 1948 and employs in-house solicitors to pursue polluters through the Courts and fight to protect water environments.

Since 1948, the ACA has won in excess of two thousand cases and recovered many millions of pounds in damages, all of which is returned to the members the ACA represents to fund habitat improvement and restoration and to compensate angling for the damage caused. Throughout our history, we have lost only three cases. At any one time, we typically have about fifty to sixty cases running and give clubs legal advice across the entire range of angling matters.
Clubs or individuals wishing to join the ACA should phone 01568 620447 during office hours or download a subscription form from the web site: www.a-c-a.org

The ACA’s Annual Report is available on request. Contact point: Mark Lloyd (Director, ACA).
Mobile: 07973 468198, Or Guy Linley-Adams (Solicitor, ACA)
Mobile: 07837 881219 e-mail: [email protected]