Fish In Need (“FIN”) was formed as a response to conversations between Paul Whitehouse and John Bailey while filming the early episodes of Mortimer and Whitehouse: Gone Fishing. They saw first hand the stress on our rivers and lakes and the damage this was doing to freshwater fish populations, and they decided to do something.
In our first Supporters of FIN Newsletter, founding trustee John Bailey reflects on progress. …
Gone Fishing In Need For nigh on ten years, fellow FIN trustee Paul Whitehouse and I have fished our way around the waters of the UK in search of fish for the maestro of angling, Bob Mortimer. It has, by and large, been a joyous task, full of fun and fiascos but at the end of the shoot, it’s the fish that are caught on camera that I, personally, am remembered by. I’m sure Paul will back me up on this statement: catching wild fish gets harder year on year.
I can’t prove this, but my sure belief is that stocks of naturally born fish in the UK are lower now than at any time since the last Ice Age. Even the Industrial Revolution didn’t have the catastrophic nationwide effect on fish populations that we see today. Salmon? Almost extinct from the south and scarce elsewhere. River roach? Almost disappeared? Dace? A vanishing species. Barbel? Outside the Trent, numbers are falling everywhere. Grayling? A fraction of the fish there were fifteen years ago.
Perhaps only wild, brown trout buck the trend and that might well be down to the Wild Trout Trust. That’s because, for my money, the WTT is one of a handful of organisations in the fish conservation world that actually does something, that sees a problem and rectifies it. Everywhere Paul and I go, we find river owners, river keepers and river anglers furious at a lack of action by all the so-called authorities, trusts and foundations set up to revive ailing fisheries. Too many are talking shops, hives of inactivity. I’ve been on the boards of these bodies and had to leave in disgust. Today, I am proud to be President of the Wild Carp Trust, a friend of the Norfolk Crucian Project and a supporter of Reading and District Angling Association whose hatchery initiative could save our wild river fish, if only the statutory authority would open its eyes and embrace their brilliance and hard work.
But most of all, I’m proud that Paul and I are founder members/trustees of Fish In Need. This could well be the smallest of all charities working for the good of fish but we WORK, we ACT and we have made real progress in a short time on meagre money. We have already helped crucian carp, wild carp, river roach, barbel, grayling and trout and we are looking into targeted salmon projects. Every penny of money FIN raises through the generosity of our friends goes back to the fish. No salaries, no pensions, no expenses; the wild fish get the lot and that has made the difference.
We are pals with the actor/activist/artist and angler James Murray. His mantra is “no yelling into the abyss.” That’s why he has set up his White Hart initiative to bring salmon back to the chalk streams. It’s a big ask but he is trying, he is not sitting on his hands, he’s not office bound but striding the banks, shovel in hand. That’s the FIN way. These are the people we look to support, those fish lovers who translate their passion into action.
I have overused the “action” word I know but that’s what we are about. We might not save all the wild fish in the UK but we’ll save some and hopefully show lumbering authorities that there are dynamic ways of saving fish rather than watching them slide into “the abyss.”
Thank you for listening. Thank you for your support. Together we might protect more and more fish as we travel this journey united.
John Bailey, June 2026 Trustee, Fish In Need Registered Charity No. 1194426