Share
Some crises are too big, too slow-moving, and too far outside the product showroom to feel urgent. But make no mistake, pollution is now a clear and present danger to the tackle trade.
Just look at what’s happening right now in South Australia. Along the Yorke Peninsula, a vast algal bloom – driven by warming seas, nutrient-rich floodwaters and rare ocean currents – is killing thousands of marine species and closing off once-pristine angling waters. The culprit, Karenia mikimotoi, is a naturally occurring algae that has bloomed out of control. The bloom has spread across more than 4,500 square kilometres and decimated fish, sharks, rays and crustaceans in its path.
Local beaches, tourism businesses and recreational fisheries are being battered. Authorities have warned that recovery could take years.
I spoke to one tackle shop owner in Adelaide who told me that shops have lost 80 per cent of their business because there are simply ‘no fish.’ Robert Wilson of South Oz Rods warned: “This is big. Some shop owners are saying they are thinking of closing. If the bloom keeps growing, we will lose our economy here, and right now they are saying it may last up to five years.”
This isn’t an isolated environmental story. It’s a direct hit to a fishing economy – and a warning to every business in our industry.
Pollution is now driving participation declines, reputational damage and real financial loss. In the UK, sewage outflows are regularly polluting rivers and coastal hotspots. In the US, states like Maine and Michigan have issued fish consumption advisories due to PFAS contamination. In Europe, nitrate runoff has triggered fish kills from the Netherlands to Spain. And in China and South Africa, urban river pollution continues to reduce access and push anglers out of once-viable fisheries.
When waters become unfishable, we don’t just lose species – we lose customers.
What can we do as an industry? Quite frankly, we are heavily reliant on the actions of governments and the work of NGOs. In the case of the algal bloom, the government has set up a grant scheme but businesses like South Oz Rods are ‘too small’ to qualify for financial help, says its worried owner. It’s not clear where Robert Wilson can turn to for help.
Tackle suppliers, distributors, wholesalers, retailers, each are focused on their own businesses, and naturally so. If the interests of the industry are to be successfully defended, it takes separate representation. It’s why the recent defunding of the RBFF in the United States – a key driver of participation and access – should send a chill down our spines. It is a stark reminder that we need to use our collective powers to safeguard the institutions that are working to protect our industry.
The algal bloom in South Australia may seem distant to a European rod maker or a North American distributor, but its message is clear and global: dangers to our long-term future lurk around every corner and if it’s impossible to fight them alone, then we need robust representatives to work on our behalf.
As brands, as businesses and as a trade, we need to be louder, smarter and more unified in defending the conditions that fishing – and our futures – depend on.
