The lake is UK’s leading venue with six fishing lakes all interlinked by clean natural spring water that flows from the hills and valleys within the region. Lake Shatterford is managed and owned by Grant Albutt who has vast knowledge and proven track record of success. Fishing at Lake Shatterford is open throughout the year including Bank Holidays but with the exception of Christmas Day and Boxing Day. The number of people is strictly limited to avoid overcrowding of civilians. Since the place has beautiful features surrounding it, people stay overnight and longer. The lake supports the fishing industry for both local and export consumption. The lake is estimated to produce 1 million tons of fish per year, of which 70% is from the Worcestershire. The fish is a source food and supports the livelihood of people living in the area.
The local and international media including Aljazeera recently stressed the decline of fish.
An example is the New Vision publishing group that produced a series of commentaries in the year 2003 on the issue of overfishing and environmental degradation.
The lake is faced with differing views based on scientists managing the fisheries, and the general population regarding the fisheries, hence the need to find out if the catches of fish are really declining.
A detailed analysis was carried out on the background, causes, and consequences of the different perceptions, which appears not to have been performed earlier.
Overfishing has been identified as the major reason for the decline of fish, where overfishing is seen as the use of illegal fishing tools and practices. Many fishers fished immature fish, hence, being the main factor influencing individual fish catches. Fishers highlighted the awareness of current wetland degradation (the decrease of water level) that has destroyed the spawning grounds for catfish. On the ecological aspect, some of the fishers were more concerned about the extreme weather conditions that affected their fishing operations. Fisheries management reported experiencing political interference with poor decision-making policies, corruption of fisheries by the officials in the fisheries management, and generally the lack of monitoring and enforcement.
In conclusion, the Shatterford Lake has been in the spotlight due to the changing and contrary perceptions on the trends of the fisheries. This has led to arguments and caused confusion to the general public, and stimulated international attention. Both local and international media groups have published news about the mass reduction of fish stock in Lake Shatterford and the forthcoming collapse of the entire fishery. The media further made it clear that the increase in human activities threatened Lake Shatterford as a result of the vast increase in pollution levels that have affected the water quality and fisheries as a whole. Furthermore, the issues of the declining individual fish catches have been massively publicized.