The Predation Action Group has published a ‘Fact Sheet: Some Unwelcome Truths About Predation’ to answer a growing demand for evidence of what is perceived to be an increasingly serious predation issue, and its impact on the ecology, the rural economy, and the tourist industry.
For a number of years PAG has been researching the growing impact of predation on fisheries, birds and small mammals, and making the results of its research public. In 2013PAG published its acclaimed reference document ‘Predation: An Ecological Disaster? The Big Picture’. The Fact Sheet is a prelude to the publication of ‘Big Picture Two: Some Unwelcome Truths About Predation’, which will deliver further details of the growing body of evidence of the extent of the problem.
The Fact Sheet collates some of the research detailing the seriousness of predation, and the value of fisheries and their associated infrastructure to the economy. The PAG film – ‘Predation: an Ecological Disaster’ – on the subject of predators and their impact (which has been over a year in the making), has also now been completed and acts as an audible/visible back-up to some of the evidence published in the Fact Sheet and Big Picture publications. You can obtain a copy of both the Fact Sheet and the film: see below for details.
The Predation Action Group is a voluntary non-profit making group which has been in existence for approaching ten years, and was founded by celebrity angling TV star and writer John Wilson MBE. The current make-up of the PAG board is detailed in the Fact Sheet. The members of the PAG board are all committed freshwater specialist anglers. As such we spend more time by the water than any other public group and witness first-hand the impact predators are having on our aquatic environment and the fish, birds and small mammals which inhabit it. ‘The State of Nature’, based on research by the RSPB and contributing wildlife groups and published in 2016, comments on the serious decline of our natural life over the last 50 years. Coincidentally, or not, the number of predators impacting on the ecology has increased exponentially during that period. In fact it would seem that the only success story in nature in the so-called Biodiversity planning is the growth and spread of protected predators.
The intention of publishing the Fact Sheet and ‘Predation: an Ecological Disaster’ is to make the body of research evidence detailing the impact of predation more accessible. PAG hopes that the evidence presented in the Fact Sheet and the film will have some influence in persuading the powers-that-be of the serious situation the environment is facing as a result of multi-level predation. If the Fact Sheet and film find their way into the hands of your MP, so much the better! We will include a suggested letter to go with submissions to MPs with the Fact Sheets and films purchased.
You can obtain your hard copy of the Fact Sheet, together with a copy of the film, by sending your name and postal address, together with a minimum donation of £5 to cover P&P, to: PAG, Horseshoe Lake, Burford Road, Lechlade, Gloucestershire GL7 3QQ.
