Isle of Ely Rowing Club developing our role in a local community of River Guardians
Andrew Bateman, Coach
On a hot sunny Sunday after some hard work by the athletes, a group of boys asked this rowing coach if they could jump in the river for a swim. We have at our club a flat out “no swimming off the landing stage” rule. The river is polluted. It’s a fact that this stretch of water is one of these stretches where it is currently not illegal to discharge sewage from sea toilets directly into the Great Ouse. So I don’t know how many boat owners actually do this, but the assumption is there that we are at risk of nasty infections if we do venture into the water. So the answer was “no” – and looking back I realised that I’ve never really questioned the backstory behind this. It’s been just a thing. But a moment this year really caught my attention. Driving home from work one evening I caught Amol Rajan’s fantastic “Radical” episode on BBC Radio 4 where he interviewed Robert Macfarlane (available as a podcast). He talked about mobilising citizen scientists to save our rivers. Although not this kind of scientist (I work in Rehabilitation at the University of Essex), this programme really activated me to get involved. I wrote to our club committee to learn that we had recently applied to the British Rowing Thriving Waters scheme.
Club junior Jamie supporting river water sampling
I was also delighted to learn that we had purchased some relevant equipment through the BR Thriving Waters scheme, and had been learning to use it. I set up a WhatsApp “IoERC River Action Group” to find out who else might want to join in and we have now had a couple of meetings where we have discussed our findings so far. Our meetings have highlighted the challenges ahead – what do we do with our findings? Who should we communicate with? Who’s bothered?
At the time of writing (January 2026) after some earlier poor results, the news about our ammonia concentration was good (0.06ppm in Dec; 0.16 in Jan). However we have also recorded persisting moderate-poor findings for Orthophosphate (0.85ppm in Nov; 0.56 in Dec; 0.47 in Jan). Learning to interpret these findings has made me think about all the other factors we’re not recording (e.g., E. coli, oxygenation, turbidity, pH, water temperature). However the data do indicate that our river is stressed.
| Ecological status | Orthophosphate ([PO4]3- annual mean) | Status implication |
|---|---|---|
| High (close to natural) | < 0.077 ppm | Ideal conditions, minimal nutrient enrichment |
| Good | 0.077 – 0.306 ppm | Minor nutrient enrichment, generally healthy |
| Moderate | 0.306 – 1.003 ppm
(Nov & Dec 2025, Jan 2026) |
Significant nutrient enrichment, potential for ecological damage |
| Poor | > 1.003 ppm | Excessive nutrient enrichment, highly likely to cause ecological failure |
This means that we should act. Our river action group realised that we need to do this not alone, and we need to share our learning, grow in our shared understanding of the science and convene a wider coalition of interested parties. We need to engage constructively with our local water and environment companies, and understand the perspectives of our local farmers. We have made a start by making friends with our angling community neighbours (Ely Beet Club Angling Section).
We were pleased to recently welcome the coordinator of the local angling association to show him around our club facilities, discuss the impact of rowing on our local anglers, how we can all enjoy the river together and raise awareness of an angler’s perspective on a rowing crew that stops right near their “swim”. As an aside some concerns had been raised that we were disrupting their enjoyment of the river and that only 1 or 2 extra strokes taking us out of their space was their simple request. We clearly share a deep common interest in the health of our river. It was great to learn about the fish lifecycle and how our floating landing stage is, from their point of view, a nursery area keeping the young fish safe from the cormorants! So we agreed that those members who’d like to join our action group would be the first part of our local coalition.
There isn’t an obvious forum for discussion and lobbying and I’m now interested in working with people who’d like to form a community of River Guardians for this stretch of the Great Ouse. We’re now exploring where the right forum might be, for now we’re using a what’s app group. There is room for optimism. Our local MP Charlotte Cane sponsored the recent House of Commons EDM on Britain’s rivers and canals; and this at least suggests a depth of local political engagement and understanding. In December one of our junior rowers (who had asked about the swim those months back) took part in the sampling of the river water and using the colorimeters. This matters to them as it does to all of us. It’s my view that their engagement will help us achieve the changes that are needed.
Perhaps there’ll be a summertime outing where we can safely encourage our club members to jump in and cool off. There’s some river-rehabilitation needed before we get to this point!
Andrew Bateman
Isle of Ely Rowing Club
Jan 2026
Darrell from Ely Beet Anglers, Andrew from IoERC
Jason Harre
