Tag Archives: Pollution

Citizen Science – Fish Survey 2025

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Report from the forth Fish Survey conducted by the RDA and the Institute of Fisheries Management July 2025 by Steve Colcough

Introduction by Richard Verrill

Estuaries are vital habitats for fish, playing a crucial role in the life cycle of many species. It is well recognised that estuaries are particularly useful in helping to support young fish stocks. Different species favour different habitat which might include gravel / sand beaches, mudflats, saltmarshes and sea grass. The River Deben can provide all of these.

Historically there was very little data about the young spawn fishes that used the Deben for their early development. Occasionally Eastern Inshore Fisheries Conservation Authority (EIFCA) or The Environment Agency have done surveys and collected some data but this had ceased after surveys done in 2013 and 2014. Stephen Thompson from EIFCA approached the RDA in 2019 suggesting that the RDA and some volunteers might like to be involved with some Citizen Science. We formed a group of RDA volunteers and had training from EIFCA and The Institute of Fisheries Management (IFM) hosted at Hazelwood Marshes and arranged by Suffolk Wildlife Trust (SWT).

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Deben Estuary Water Quality Update – Woodbridge Outfall Safari

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By Colin Nicholson

Introduction

Water Quality is a fast moving, high interest area for the River Deben Association.  Since the  last RDA Journal Article (‘Water Quality Update’ January 2025), Waldringfield Bathing Water Designation Area has achieved (announced 25th October 2025) a second year of clear run 20/20 [Excellent] measurements across the May-September Environment Agency (EA) bathing season.

Two significant projects are now in their start-up phases, each with a major focus on water quality:

The Deben Climate Centre’s Four River’s initiative (link) across the Deben, Blyth, Alde and Ore and Waveney “A new three-year co-funding agreement between East Suffolk Council and Deben Climate Centre… The aim will be to restore degraded ecosystems, support nature recovery and test a range of different flood alleviation measures.”

The Essex and Suffolk Rivers Trust has initiated the ‘Recovering the Deben: Source to Sea’ (link) “an ambitious project that aims to restore the land, water, and nature throughout the River Deben catchment and estuary”

This latest journal article focusses on trying to resolve the debate on just how many outfalls there are between Martlesham Creek to Wilford Bridge.  The answer is Fourteen (caveated as usual as there is more to learn, and there is an extra one inland at the Deben Yacht Club (DYC) dinghy park).  Below for those interested is a little bit more detail of how they work.

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Water Quality Update

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By Colin Nicholson

Swimmers enjoying the water at Waldringfield January 2025

There continues to be much local and national interest and activity about the water quality of the River Deben.  This interest has led to a huge increase in knowledge of what is going on where, but there remains much to learn.  Below is a personal perspective of where we are now and further activity.

Introduction  – “What is the Water Quality of The Deben?” and “Can I swim in the Deben?”

“What is the Water Quality of The Deben?” and “Can I swim in the Deben?” are questions that are often asked.

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Help clean up our beaches

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by Kate Osborne

I remember the first time I ever saw someone collecting rubbish from the beach. It was a beautiful white sand cove in Corsica. What struck me as odd wasn’t the fact that he was stark naked (it really was a deserted beach!) but that he was carrying a torn white plastic feed sack and he was using it as a sling for all sorts of other litter. I’m ashamed to say I laughed – whether inwardly or outwardly I’m not sure – but I’m still friends with him and the rest of his family, so it can’t have been that obvious.

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AGM Report – Essex and Suffolk Rivers Trust – The State of our Rivers Report

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The East Suffolk Rivers area of 1,364 km2 encompasses the valleys, waterbodies, tributaries and estuaries of the Rivers Gipping (Orwell), Deben, Alde and Ore, Thorpeness Hundred, Yox, Blyth and Lothingland Hundred.

This area is mostly rural with significant urban areas at Felixstowe, Ipswich, Woodbridge, Wickham Market, Stowmarket, Saxmundham, Halesworth, Southwold and Kessingland.

Agriculture is the predominant land use (root veg and pig farming in the east and arable). Other pockets of land-based industry exist, including food processing, milling, malting and the manufacture of farm machinery and fertilisers.

The attached report by the Essex and Suffolk Rivers Trust looks at the current state of these Suffolks Rivers.

 

Overview of Sewage Overflows

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By Liz Hattan

The East Anglian Daily Times recently published an article on sewage overflows into Suffolk rivers (October 26th 2021), highlighting those rivers with the highest number of spills in 2020.  The River Deben had 40 spills at its Deben Road overflow, totalling 18 hours. Other rivers such as the River Thet fared worse with over 1100 hours of spills at Badwell Ash, and some sites in the other parts of the country have seen thousands of hours of spills (see Rivers Trust interactive map for local data ‘Is my river fit to play in?’  https://arcg.is/19LiCa).  Nationally, the number of spills is high with over 400,000 monitored spills (around 3.1million hours) in 2020 into English rivers and many more unmonitored ones.

So why are there are so many spills, why does it matter and what is being done to address the problem? This is a high profile issue with considerable political, media and public scrutiny. This article looks at some of the challenges. Continue reading →