Hydropower and fish

14/9/2012

You may have read or heard about an article in the Spectator magazine. entitled "Something’s fishy: Hydroelectric power is bad for the taxpayer and bad for the environment. Why does no one say so". The British Hydropower Association has written a balanced response to this article which I endorse.

3 Comments

Robert D

15/9/2012 08:53:34

I am intrigued as the 'critique' is written by Mann Power who supply archimedian screws and profit greatly from Hydropower. The BHA needs to offer their own reply, which is unlikely, poor.

Gavin King-Smith link

16/9/2012 01:49:36

Fair comment.

But whatever the pros and cons of low head vs high head schemes and different types of turbine, the response itself, which was adopted by the BHA, seemed to me to be balanced.

mike kirwin

18/9/2012 03:32:57

"Cuckson should be challenged to stand up and defend her headline assertion that hydropower “kills and mutilates fish, trashes historic spawning grounds and wipes out dependent ecosystems”. This is not supported by any evidence from contemporary developments in the UK."

Pippa Cuckson (author of original article) is blinkered. If she wanted to write an article about the plight of fish she has a wealth of info to go at. A handful of readily available examples are:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/sep/26/fishing-boats-killing-seabirds up to 320,000 birds killed each year by trawlers
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-18511830 - June '12 thousands of fish die in chemical spill
http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/oceans/problems/bycatch-wasteful-and-destructive-fishing. hundreds of thousands of dead fish from bycatch
http://www.anglingtrust.net/news.asp?itemid=1319&itemTitle=Fish+Kills+on+the+Weaver+and+Wandle§ion=29§ionTitle=News. Aug '12 100,000 dead fish possibly from agriculture
http://www.flyforums.co.uk/news/news/6447-fish-kill-on-5-5km-stretch-of-kiltha-river-co-cork.html. Aug '12 Many thousands of fish killed by toxic chemicals
http://endoftheline.com/campaign/overfishing/. 90% of worlds large fish stock already farmed
http://endoftheline.com/campaign/fish_facts/
http://www.illegal-fishing.info/
http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/campaigns/oceans/overfishing/
http://ocean.nationalgeographic.com/ocean/critical-issues-overfishing/
http://ecological-problems.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/overfishing-facts.html
https://vimeo.com/42619545 End overfishing

Instead, she chooses to write a fictional piece and dresses it up as fact. Jog on Pippa.

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Hydropower and fish

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