Ecological Success in England

For those who don't know. The Thames river runs through London, England and for more than a century it has been an example of how a major city can kill a major river and its ecosystem.

In 1858, the stench was so bad that Parliament (pictured above) had to be dissolved.

In 1878, a steamship sunk after an accident on the river, and most of the 600 or so passengers who died did so because they were overpowered by a noxious cocktail of human and industrial filth before they could reach safety.

By 1950, the river was devoid of oxygen and in 1957 it was pronounced biologically dead.

Since that time, the government has commited itself to quietly cleaning up the Thames.

In the last 5 years, conditions have improved so much that trout, salmon, seals and other fish have made an incredible comeback. Even bottlenose dolphins have been spotted upstream.

This week, National Geographic reports that seahorses have been found again after a 30 year period where none could be found.

Come on Toronto! If London can do it, we can certainly clean up the Don and Humber Rivers. Who wouldn't want to watch Salmon and Trout make a comeback in our rivers. If you check our conservation authority websites, you will find that they are actively restocking trout annually, but we must fix the storm sewer runoffs that feed crap directly into these rivers.