Thames Salmon
Our findings highlight the futility of long-term stocking without corresponding improvements in habitat and water quality.*
a healthy system means
a healthy apex predator
a salmon in the Thames
lost and not delivered
and it finds itself
acclimatising here
get the river right
the fish will run the rest
* Andrew M. Griffiths, Jonathan S. Ellis, Darryl Clifton-Dey, Gonzalo Machado-Schiaffino, Dylan Bright, Eva Garcia-Vazquez, Jamie R. Stevens, Restoration versus recolonisation: The origin of Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar L.) currently in the River Thames, Biological Conservation, In Press, Corrected Proof, Available online 24 August 2011, ISSN 0006-3207, DOI: 10.1016/j.biocon.2011.07.017.
(Thames Salmon featured in the Fishy Tales event on the River Thames, 2012)
Andrew Bailey lives in Sussex. He was one of the original editors for the Poetry Archive, and has also worked for the Poetry Society, Poetry International Web and a handful of fringe theatre companies. Poems have appeared widely, online and offline, and a first collection, Zeal, was published by Enitharmon in 2012. He was the 2005 winner of the Geoffrey Dearmer Prize.