Brian’s passion for trout fishing has taken him from his home on the shores of Lough Erne in Ireland to study in the wilds of north-east Scotland and the chalkstreams of southern England before he joined the Agency in 1999. Highlight of his career so far has been winning the Water Industry Game Fishing Championship at Bewl in 2001. His main aims are to avoid giving his colleagues any embarrassing stories about him, to fish as much as possible and also to avoid blanking at the Water Industry Game Fishing Championship.

nwest@ifm.org.uk or brian.shields@environment-agency.gov.uk

Keith Hendry - B.Sc. (Hons.), PhD, F.I.F.M., C.Env. (Branch Chair)

Keith is an aquatic scientist with many years experience in both water quality and fisheries management within rivers, estuaries, lakes, reservoirs, and canals gained from a large number of studies throughout the country. Having worked previously for the Marine Biological Association and South West Water, for the past 19 years he has held the position of managing director of the science based aquatic consultancy firm APEM Ltd in Manchester.

In addition to being a member of the Institute’s Council and North West Branch Chairman, Keith is the Honorary Biologist & Scientific Advisor to the National Federation of Anglers, advising on issues ranging from national policy to specific pollution events. He also acts as a scientific advisor to the Tweed Foundation and the Eden River’s Trust. He was also a member of the Government’s Salmon & Freshwater Fisheries Legislative Review Committee undertaking a two-year root and branch review of fisheries management and legislation in England and Wales and is currently an Environment Agency RFERAC member.

Locally, in the North West, Keith has been heavily involved in the Manchester Ship Canal, Salford Quays and Liverpool Dock developments since the mid 1980’s. As a long standing supporter of the Mersey Basin Campaign he has been heavily involved in much of the organisations work, initiating and undertaking several large scale water quality investigations and remedial projects, in particular the MSC Oxygenation Project. He is currently undertaking the water based investigations into the environmental impacts of the new Mersey Crossing at Halton/Runcorn, involving studies into fisheries, invertebrates and water quality and is helping to develop the Environment Agency strategy for returning sustainable salmon populations to the River Bollin, a Mersey tributary.

As a keen angler of all persuasions, Keith’s moment of glory was catching two 25-pound pike on the fly on successive days in 2004 at Chew Valley Lakes.

keith.hendry@apemltd.co.uk

Fred French - MBE, FIFM. (Branch President)

Fred is a retired Registered insurance broker but has been involved in angling and fisheries activities for more than fifty years, first at club and association level and for the last thirty-seven of those years at regional and national level. He is a southerner but retired to Ambleside in the Lake District in 1985.

He represented London and the South East on the former National Anglers’ Council from 1969 to 1990 when the NAC was dissolved and also served on several Thames Water committees. He was Treasurer of the London Anglers’ Association which in the 1960s had a membership of 700 clubs comprising more than 48,000 members. Fred was a member of three Thames Championships winning teams and won a silver medal in the 1974 National Federation of Anglers’ First Division Champions when his Hertfordshire Federation team was placed third.

At the time of the reorganisation of the water industry in 1973 Fred was appointed by the then Secretary of State to represent angling interests on the Water Space Amenity Commission (WSAC), a position which he held until WSAC was dissolved ten years later. As the angling member of WSAC Fred was asked to organise an annual Water Industry Coarse Fishing and then a Game Fishing Championships and he continues to organise these popular and prestigious events almost thirty years on.

Fred is passionate about the work of angling and fisheries consultative organisations, has founded many of these over the years and is currently Chairman of both the Furness & South Cumbria Consultative and the North West Fisheries Consultative Council. He is a member of the EA North West RFERAC and is Vice President of the new South Cumbria Rivers Trust and a Vice President and committee member of the Anglers’ Conservation Association (ACA), he is also a member of United Utilities Conservation, Access & Recreation Advisory Committee

He is Member Services Officer of the National Association of Fisheries & Angling Consultatives (NAFAC) and is a long time active member and supporter of the IFM, he was elected a Fellow of the Institute in 1998.

Fred was awarded the MBE in 2002 for services to angling, conservation and disabled people.

Ian J Winfield - BSc, PhD, MIFM, CEnv. (Branch Treasurer)

Ian J Winfield has a BSc (Hons) in Zoology and a PhD in freshwater fish ecology, with c. 26 years experience of research into freshwater fish ecology, with particular reference to population and community dynamics, roles in lake ecosystems, hydroacoustics, effects of climate change and the applied issues of the conservation of biodiversity and fisheries management.  He sits on a number of advisory bodies and has published 87 scientific articles, 178 commissioned research reports and 13 popular articles.  He was an Assistant Editor of the Journal of Fish Biology for seven years, is currently a member of the Editorial Boards of Aquatic Conservation:  Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems and Freshwater Biology, has edited five conference proceedings, and has co-edited the standard reference text for cyprinid fishes.  He was also the founder of EchoSums, an international user group for hydroacoustics in the freshwater environment.