The Menai Strait Sustainable Catchment Management Initiative (MSSCMI)
The North Wales Rivers Trust is excited to announce we have received funding from the Coastal Capacity Building Fund. Working in partnership with The Menai Strait Fishery Order Management Association (MSFOMA) to research the factors affecting water quality in the Menai Strait and liaise with stakeholders and the community to find solutions to the challenges this unique environment faces.
First of many team meetings between NWRT and MSFOMA.
The Coastal Capacity Building Challenge Fund enables Local Nature Partnerships to enhance human and social capital, enable grass-roots investment to coastal communities and increase public understanding of the marine environment and the challenges/pressures it faces.
The Menai Strait has a huge role in the community from educational and recreational activities to the shellfish industry. It is highly regarded as one of the most important aquaculture sites in all of Wales and the single largest mussel farming area in the UK.
North Wales River Trust CEO Laura Owen Sanderson says ‘The main challenge of improving the Menai Strait will be to achieve improvements in water quality by reducing the impact of sewage discharges and other pollution losses. This project will allow us to look at the entire catchment, including the rivers that enter the Menai Strait and the impact any discharges and pollution are having on the marine environment and identify solutions’.
The River Trust map shows sewage hot spots entering the Strait.
From 2016 to 2019 between 3,000 and 5,000 tonnes of mussels were produced per annum but since 2020, production has fallen to less than 400 tonnes per annum. In order to export mussels a seasonal ‘A’ classification must be maintained, at the moment only 1 production site out of 6 has this classification. However, this is primarily due to occasionally high microbial (E. coli) counts. This has had a dramatic effect on the fishing industry and highlights the importance of identifying factors affecting water quality.
North Wales Rivers Trust Community Engagement officer Oisin Lowe-Sellers says ‘this is an opportunity to highlight how water quality affects the wider community of Afon Menai’.
For more information and to get involved in the forum meetings please contact oisin@northwalesriverstrust.org