Hatcheries, Hard Truths, and the Question We Keep Avoiding – Follow Up

A personal reflection by Nigel Geary

Editor’s Disclaimer

This article reflects the personal views of the author. It is intended to stimulate discussion and reflection and does not represent an official policy position of the Ribble Fisheries Consultative Association (RFCA). RFCA remains committed to evidence-led conservation, habitat improvement, and the long-term protection of wild fish populations.

A Familiar Debate, on a Seasonal Cycle

Over recent months, once again, the discussion around hatcheries has moved firmly back onto the agenda. For many Ribble and Hodder anglers, this debate follows a familiar seasonal rhythm – spring optimism, summer concern, and autumn reflection as spawning fish appear.

Spring brings excitement and hope with the opening of a new season. As weeks pass and salmon fail to materialise, optimism often gives way to frustration. Through the summer months, concern deepens. Then, in autumn, we stand riverside watching spawning fish – marvelling at their resilience, while quietly questioning whether what we are witnessing is enough to secure the future.

This cycle is not emotional hand-wringing. It reflects a growing sense that time is no longer on our side.

Looking Back: Witchywell and the Hodder Hatchery

The Hodder once benefitted from an operational hatchery run by the Hodder Consultative Association, and whatever view people hold on hatcheries today, the work carried out at Witchywell remains an important reference point in the Ribble and Hodder story.

What makes the DVD particularly valuable is that it captures more than just “what happened”. It documents the intent, effort, practical decision-making, and prevailing thinking of its time. It shows real-world constraints, hands-on processes, and the motivations of those involved. For anglers and river custodians, this matters – because it helps us understand why hatcheries were used, how they were operated, and what outcomes people hoped to achieve.

For those who haven’t seen it, it is well worth watching – not as an argument for or against hatcheries, but as a piece of local history that can inform a more grounded discussion today. If nothing else, it gives us a common reference point:

This is what “doing something” looked like on the Hodder.

Watch the DVD here: https://vimeo.com/642443633?share=copy&fl=sv&fe=ci

Hatcheries Are Not New — Nor Were They Used Lightly

Hatcheries are not a modern invention, nor were they introduced casually. Historically, they have been used as a deliberate lever to restore depleted stocks, often when managers believed collapse or extinction was a genuine risk.

Examples include the recovery of the River Nith discussed in Hugh Falkus’ film Salmo the Leaper, and historic stocking on the Ribble itself – including fish originating from the Thurso system. These interventions were not undertaken blindly or without concern. They were responses to desperation, not convenience.

The point is not to romanticise the past or suggest simple replication today. It is to recognise that supportive breeding has been used before when the stakes were existential.

What Has Changed Since My Original Blog?

I first wrote about hatcheries over a year ago. Since then, what has really changed?

Not the fundamentals of marine survival.
Not climate pressure.
Not the complexity of recovery.

What has changed is the depth of concern.

Stock assessments continue to point in the wrong direction. Anglers’ lived experience increasingly mirrors the data. Conversations that once felt theoretical now feel urgent. The prospect of losing salmon from our rivers no longer sounds alarmist – it sounds plausible and with intervention inevitable

That change in context matters.

Hope on the Hodder — and the Question It Forces Us to Ask

It is vital to acknowledge the outstanding work being delivered on the ground, particularly by the Ribble Rivers Trust. Over recent years, the Trust has led some of the most ambitious and well-designed habitat improvement projects anywhere in the catchment, addressing connectivity, natural processes, and habitat quality at a meaningful scale.

This work was rightly recognised when Ribble Rivers Trust became the inaugural winner of the Wild Salmon Conservation Award for its Hodder Together project — focused on restoring salmon habitat throughout the River Hodder. That achievement deserves genuine congratulations. It is a significant moment, and one that offers real hope.

Hodder Together demonstrates what can be achieved when expertise, funding, landowner engagement, and long-term vision align. For the Hodder, it provides a positive narrative at a time when good news is scarce.

But here is the uncomfortable truth in my layman opinion: habitat restoration is a long game, and salmon may not have the luxury of time.

Success on the Hodder must not become a reason to avoid harder questions elsewhere. The Ribble main stem and other tributaries cannot be allowed to drift into the background. Knowing Jack Spees well, it is clear the Ribble remains very much in his focus – but as anglers, we must still ask whether habitat alone can act quickly enough, given the severity of decline.

This is where the hatchery debate does not compete with habitat work — it intersects with it.

A Conversation Still to Be Had

This remains a personal view, not RFCA policy.

But as salmon anglers, we should ask ourselves one final question:
Are we willing to watch our sport slowly drift toward the history books – another rural pursuit spoken about in the past tense – because we were unwilling to challenge orthodoxy when it mattered?
Or are we prepared to have uncomfortable conversations now, while there is still a chance to change the ending?