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Life As a Thames Fisherman Once Thriving Smelt Fishery

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Life As a Thames Fisherman Once Thriving Smelt Fishery THE STORY OF THE IN THE THAMES Fish from the Thames In the 19th century, the Thames in London provided a plentiful supply have fed Londoners for of fish to eat. Many fishing families thousands of years. relied on the river to make a living ONCE from selling fish like smelt, which Evidence of smelt bones was considered a delicacy. HAVE YOU The European smelt The presence of smelt indicates THRIVING in Medieval and Roman Beginning at age 9, fathers would an estuary has clean water and train their sons during a 7 year (Osmerus eperlanus) can support other wildlife. archaeological sites and the SMELT A wooden remains of Anglo- apprenticeship. On the Thames, is a fish with a silver The smelt’s story in the Thames SMELT fishermen used peterboats, which body that smells like teaches us about the need to Saxon fish traps, that can still had a well for holding live fish and SMELT? look after our river. FISHERY be seen in the river today, only had space for one man and a cucumber. show us that the significance a boy. In the early 1800s, records of smelt and other fishes show that fisherman and their stretches back over the entire apprentices only returned home history of London. once a month or every six weeks. Thames families fished the Fishers worked and lived closely together. waters from Teddington to Gravesend over many LIFE AS A generations. Most lived in small cottages as part of a THAMES close-knit community of fishing families along the FISHERMAN shores of the river. According to census records from Wandsworth, around 12 people typically shared a house with just two rooms. For smelt fishing, a net was In the stretch of river between Hammersmith stretched between two and Wandsworth 30-40 boats could often be peterboats, so the fishermen seen cooperatively fishing during the early 1800s. had to work together. Each haul of the net could Billingsgate market was selling catch up to 3,000 fish. 50,000 smelt per day in 1810. By 1828, the Thames Construction along the foreshore and of weirs throughout the fishermen and their catchment reduced the habitat families were reduced available for the river’s fish. DECLINE to a state of starvation Additionally, illegal nets and bycatch from the whitebait fishery OF THE due to the collapse of resulted in overharvesting of fish populations. smelt. Lastly, as the population of London grew so did the amount FISHERY of waste that flowed into the river from factories and sewers. At one time, 25 smelt were worth a week’s In its heyday the industry wages, so the fishery was very profitable. employed around 500 fishermen. The Pearce family began fishing on the Thames in the 1700s and continued for several generations. Pictured below are Henry ‘Bommer’ Pearce and his cousin Dick Pearce. Not many years after this picture was taken, Bommer’s peterboat was left abandoned in the mud of the Thames at Kew, where it slowly disintegrated. Evidence of water pollution The pollution peaked in 1858, can be found in the court the year of the Great Stink, records throughout the when the Thames was full SO WHY DID 19th century. of sewage. FISHING COME TO In 1821, a group of fishermen led by Edward Although fishermen like Bommer had a long Pearce complained about pollution from family history of relying on the Thames, gasworks by testifying that ‘it kills all the eventually they conceded that the fish were AN END FOR THE Fish-if he takes Fish they die in the well as gone and along with them the livelihoods of PEARCE FAMILY soon as he passes Barking Creek’. the Pearce family and other fishers. Another Pearce led the complaints again in OF STRAND ON 1840 when he told the the jury that within THE GREEN? 30 minutes of fishing all his catch were dead. Find out more thamesdiscovery.org/frog-blog/research-on-smelt-fishermen smelt_newspaperAW.indd 1 08/09/2016 16:36 Since the decline and eventual death of the river in the 19th century, TODAY Londoners started to understand the risks to IN THE human health of polluting Smelt migrate to THAMES our source of drinking Wandsworth in March water. to lay their eggs. We also now know how fragile the ecology of the Thames is. Past and present fish populations are linked RETURN by their need for a clean and healthy river. Smelt fry drift with Following years of effort to clean up the OF THE the tide up and river, the tide of pollution has turned and down the Thames smelt have returned! Smelt are sensitive Adult smelt live in the SMELT in central London. to pollution, so their presence in the river outer Thames Estuary. shows it is healthy enough to provide a home for other fishes too. Although smelt populations have declined by 30% in the UK, a breeding population has returned to the Thames. In the first few months Seabass of life, young smelt live juveniles rely on the Thames in the freshwater Thames for critical nursery habitat. Flounder were one of the first fish to return after the pollution of European Eel the Thames. Enter the Thames in spring after a 5,000 km journey across the Atlantic. Dace are the most common T freshwater fish in the Thames. H S Short-Snouted E E Dover Sole Seahorses utilize the Thames as one of M were recently discovered breeding the most important nursery R in the outer Thames Estuary. grounds in England, and I V A supports a commercial fishery. E R T H HOW CAN I HELP? Become a citizen YOUR SINK road DRAINS #oneless scientist with ZSL Be careful what drains away from your Road and surface drains go to river so Plastic often ends up in the river and ...and help monitor the state of Thames sinks and toilets, everything can end up be careful what goes down them. Make small pieces are eaten by fish and other in London. zsl.org/thames in the river! Oils and fats solidify in the sure your plumbing at home is correctly animals – help reduce the amount of sewers, block them and cause pollution connected and isn’t harming wildlife. plastic by going #oneless and switching to a events. binit.thameswater.co.uk connectright.org.uk refillable water bottle. With support from: The Zoological Society of London For further information about this Europe Conservation Programme would like to thank all the people who project and other conservation work in Regent's Park, London, have worked on this project: volunteer the Thames, please contact ZSL’s Europe England NW1 4RY researchers, citizen scientists, Heritage Conservation team: Lottery Fund and Thames Discovery zsl.org/thames Programme. [email protected] smelt_newspaperAW.indd 2 08/09/2016 16:36.
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