1. Norfolk Broads FAP
The Norfolk and Suffolk Broads are one of Britain’s finest wetlands. The area boasts a huge variety of habitats and landscape types; rivers, shallow lakes, marshes and fens. These are linked to form a wetland ecosystem consisting of 27+ Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs), four of which are National Nature Reserves (NNRs), and 22 of which make up the Broads Ramsar / Special Protection Area (SPA). In addition, a number of Candidate Special Areas of Conservation (cSACs) designated under the EU Habitats and Species Directive (1994) have been proposed.
Between the 12th and 14th Century peat digging became a major industry in the area. The shallow lakes or ‘broads’ we see today are the result of medieval peat excavations for fuel. The Broads has now become among the most beautiful of Britain’s landscapes and one of Europe’s most popular inland waterways, which today attract more than one million visitors each year. The following document represents the output of an Environment Agency (EA) national pilot project aimed at producing a Fisheries Action Plan (FAP) for the Broads Area.
Geographically the Broads Authority’s (BA) Executive Area covers an area approximately 300 km 2 and extends along the lower valleys of the Rivers Bure, Yare and Waveney together with the two tributaries of the Bure, the Ant and Thurne and the tributary of the River Yare, which is the Chet. The FAP follows the same boundary.
The Broads FAP is managed through the Broads Angling Strategy Group a partnership form with the Broads Authority, Environment Agency, English Nature and representatives from local and national angling clubs and individuals from within the catchment area.
Find out more about the Broads FAP and other Anglian Region projects:
2. River Wensum FAP
River Wensum (Costessey Point)
Recognised in the early 1980’s as one of England’s finest barbel and chub fisheries, since then, the 
Costessey Point reach of the River Wensum has suffered from the affects of habitat damaging river-dredging works and over abstraction of water.
www.norfolkanglers.com/wensum......
Following from this its once strong flows dwindled and slowed until gradually its polished gravels pools became covered in layers of silt sediment, which eventually led to the decline of its famous fish stocks and the demise of the fishery as the jewel in the crown of Norfolk’s rivers.
Twenty years later NACA and its partners start work on Costessey Point Project, a highly ambitious river habitat restoration project designed to reverse the fortunes of the fishery.
The work undertaken on the restoration of this stretch of the River Wensum is now almost complete and now awaits natures help in restoring the natural habitat previously destroyed by man and the introduction of fresh brood stock to enhance the natural barbel stocks. For a full account of this work visit the web site and take a detailed look at what is being achieved!
River Wensum (Swanton Morley)
The first phase of a habitat improvement scheme on the River Wensum at Burgh Common, Swanton Morley, Norfolk has been completed by the Environment Agency.
A change to the flow of the river will improve conditions for a wider range of invertebrates and aquatic plants to colonise and thrive, and help to provide increased spawning and foraging habitat for dace, bullhead, chub, brown trout, brook lamprey and barbel.
The project involved the creation of two shallow, fast-flowing gravel riffles between 30 and 40 metres in length to improve the diversity of the habitat as well as changing flows in the channel.
In addition, three off-channel bays were created at the edge of the left bank to improve the nursery and refuge habitat for young fish and it is hoped that the diversity of flow created by the new riffles will further improve the distribution and variety of fry along the stretch.
The Agency’s Ecological Appraisal Team are undertaking monthly fry surveys along the Swanton Morley stretch to help assess the impact of the scheme, which also forms part of a wider programme of fry surveys on the River Wensum.
Fisheries officer Stephen Lane said: ‘The scheme should have wider benefits for other features of the River Wensum which is a Special Area of Conservation, including white-claw crayfish and water crowfoot, as well as improving the food sources available to otters.’
The scheme at Swanton Morley represents a significant part of the Agency’s contribution towards the FAP actions. The scheme also forms part of a strategic, multi-functional approach taken by the Environment Agency to improving the River Wensum and complements other measures currently underway, such as phosphate stripping and diffuse pollution reduction.
