Broads Under Threat From North Sea

THE hardest evidence yet that the famous Norfolk Broads fisheries will not be defended against the ravages of a rising North Sea has left local fishing tackle and bait bosses and angling’s top brass in a state of angry disbelief.

They are dejected and resigned to the fact that no Government funds will be granted to defend this water park of national and international renown.

In a television interview last week, Floods Minister Elliott Morley, commenting on the Happisburgh cliff erosion row, categorically stated that, under the cost/benefit criteria laid down by Government, there would be no Government grant to help restore those crumbling sea defences at Happisburgh.

As Happisburgh campaigners David Will and Malcolm Kerby have repeatedly and correctly asserted, a serious breach of the high ground there would open the gate for devastating lowland sea floods that would sweep unhindered all the way to Horsey Mere, Hickling Broad, and eventually into the River Thurne and Bure Valleys, leaving millions of dead course fish in their wake.

Up-to-date Environment Agency risk maps highlight the vulnerable coastline between Happisburgh and Horsey that could result in Broads flooding.

Former lecturer at the UEA School of Environmental Sciences, Professor Keith Clayton, has no doubts that it is not a matter of if, but when a towering sea driven by a fierce north-westerly gale, during a high spring tide, will pound the East Coast and spill over into the Broads to create repeat of 1953 or worse.

The chilling financial consequences of such an environmental disaster on the Norfolk tourism industry, as well as the environment and recreation, has yet to be assessed.

But at Gorleston Tackle Centre, Derrick Amies, who caught his British record pike from the very vulnerable River Thurne Valley waters in 1986, said he was appalled by an apparent laissez-faire policy of managed retreat from the flood threat.

He declared: “I cannot believe our Government will not find the money to defend an important international nature reserve like the Norfolk Broads while they are spending millions preparing for war in the Middle East. “The Broads are a huge economic success story for the whole of Norfolk and Suffolk and beyond. I would have thought that averting a flood disaster that could wipe out huge areas of our freshwater habitat would be top priority for national and local government alike.”

While some cash has been spent by the Environment Agency raising tidal river embankments to protect important land areas in the flood plains, the proposal to install a sea barrage at Yarmouth, which would have defended tidal river fish stocks against rising sea levels caused by global warming, was rejected because it did not pass the controversial cost/benefit test. Chairman of the Norwich and District Anglers’ Association, Stan Alden, whose biggest angling body in Norfolk leases banks of the tidal Rivers Bure and Thurne, said the revelation that coastal areas adjacent to The Broads were likely to be sacrificed to sea came as no surprise. He said: “The writing was on the wall when the tidal barrier schemes that were put forward after the floods of 1953 right up to the late 1970s were finally rejected by a Government conspiracy with local authorities that the cost was not justified.

“I think The Broads will become sea lakes within a matter of a few years and all anglers will have then are non-tidal rivers and the commercial fisheries.”

He concluded: “It is a very grim prospect indeed for the famous Norfolk Broads fisheries that have been visited and enjoyed by millions of delighted anglers in the past 100 years or more.”

So the message is to enjoy the tidal rivers and broads while you can. The chances of catching that splendid River Yare pike, like the 33-pounder reeled in by Essex expert David Horton about two weeks ago, are bright this weekend and prospects for the Rivers Bure, Thurne and Waveney are equally promising.

A monster predator has been spotted up Stalham Dyke, not far from the boatyard area, and the main Broads like Horsey and Filby are very promising again.

Along the coast, the troublesome weed that was stirred up by the gales appears to have been swept away on the ebb tides and codling fishing is forecast to be excellent at the weekend.