We’ve done a lot of river cleans, but never one like this

WATER’s regular followers will know that for some time we have been making a documentary about the Erme. We have already covered many aspects of the river but we wanted to show what it’s like to be on it, rather than most people’s perspective of being an observer from the riverbanks.

A canoe trip down the river would give us that unique perspective and to make the trip even more worthwhile, we could carry out a river clean as we headed downstream from Ivybridge to Coastguards Beach.

Our intrepid crew comprised our Vice Chair, Tim Poate, his son Josh and our volunteer film director and cameraman Ali Wade.

We found a day when the weather, the tide and everyone’s availability were aligned and set off at noon. The only missing ingredient was sufficient water in many upper reaches, resulting in the canoe frequently needing to be hauled, more than paddled, for the first few kilometres.

The film footage of the river was worth the effort, but the real surprise was the amount and type of rubbish that we found, particularly on the stretch from Ivybridge to Sequer’s Bridge. Amongst the haul were: a bike, two supermarket trolleys, a sack barrow, assorted road signs and cones, numerous tennis balls (too far gone to return to the tennis club) a huge tangle of discarded fishing net, plus the usual plastic litter so thoughtlessly discarded. We had to stop three times to unload another canoe load of rubbish and arrange for its collection.

The good news is that this trip also emphasised just what beautiful, varied, meandering little river this is. Chatting to a local riparian owner, who has been regularly walking the river since boyhood, he commented on how the absence of fish in the river was so striking these days. “It used to be teeming with good size trout” he said “now I’m lucky to see a trout rise and when they do, they’re scarcely a hand span in length. These kinds of stories remind us why we need to restore the river to its naturally healthy state.