The Canavese sports fishermen are ready to take to the streets but on Friday it is possible that there will be a turning point

Restocking prohibited 15 days after opening: closed reserves, impoverished streams and a disaster for farmers and shopkeepers

RIVAROLO CANAVESE. This time the rod, hooks and reels will not draw them out to spend a few hours on the banks of streams, rivers and lakes but for a colorful but intense protest in front of the headquarters of the Piedmont Region. It will only be necessary to decide the day and time, unless, in an informal but decisive meeting in the Region scheduled for Friday 18, there is a sensational twist and the Region accepts the reasons of those who protest. The theme: less than two weeks after the opening of the trout fishing season, traditionally the most practiced in Piedmont, despite the promises, the situation has not been unlocked: the ban on repopulating watercourses with non-native species imposed by a European directive implemented by the Italian government and transmitted to the Regions without the possibility of exceptions, has in fact almost completely paralyzed the world of sport fishing. The European objective is to avoid “genetic pollution” of naturally occurring species, therefore no to rainbow trout and Atlantic brown trout, which have always been the most used in sowing in public waters. The only trout allowed for restocking is the marmorata. Result: the owners of fish farms, all the commercial activities (from large companies to small retail shops) that live off fishing, the managers of paid reserves, the Municipalities that those stretches of river or torrente they rent them to private individuals or associations, the complex and variegated world of competition which has tens of thousands of practitioners and, last but not least, local tourism.

“This directive has created more damage to the sector than two years of closure for Covid” thunders from the historic association Garisti Alto Canavese, which counts over 300 people among agonists, members and supporters, of which about fifty are “pierins”, children between seven and the 14 years practicing sport fishing.

«Perhaps in Turin it is not clear that only the Fipsas members in this part of Piedmont are five thousand, a number that triples by gathering those who practice sport fishing only occasionally.

What does the army of sports fishermen ask of the Region?

«Simply the possibility of continuing to do what we have been doing for 85 years: repopulating the waterways with brown trout, present for a century, rainbow and char. All species that adapt perfectly to our streams, while the marmorata, much more delicate and difficult to breed in hatcheries, would not resist ». From the Region, despite the intercessions of numerous councilors including Mauro Fava and Claudio Leone, there were no signs of openness. But something could change. In Lombardy they did the math: without a derogation almost six million euros would go up in smoke in a year and a sector in which more than 3 thousand people operate, including producers of technical materials, shopkeepers, fish farmers would be in crisis.

Numbers in line with those of Piedmont. «In Lombardy the inputs of whitefish, whitefish, rainbow trout, Atlantic brown trout, Mediterranean brown trout, grayling and arctic char are resuming. Thanks to the amendment to the finanziaria presented by Senator Simone Bossi the situation was unblocked. While waiting for the national technical table, we have decided to proceed to safeguard the sport and professional fishing of our lakes ”, said the Lombardy Regional Councilor for Agriculture, Fabio Rolfi regarding the decree of the Lombardy Region.

“The discussion work with Ispra and the ministry will obviously continue and we will present all the studies to ensure that the definitive possibility of introducing species that have been present in Lombardy for centuries is recognized,” adds the commissioner.