Salmon Fishing in the Yemen

Our masters tell us this project should be pushed on a bit. The sponsor is not a UK citizen, but the project can be presented as a template for Anglo-Yemeni cooperation, which of course has wider implications for perceptions of UK involvement in the Middle East.

I think you could quietly drop a word in the ear of David Sugden, whom I believe is the director of the fisheries people at DEFRA, that a successful outcome to this project might attract the attention of the committee putting forward recommendations for the next New Year honours list. Equally it is only fair to point out that an unsuccessful outcome might make it difficult to defend NCFE against further cuts in grant funding in the next round of negotiations with the Treasury for the new financial year. This might help get the right messages across. We have, of course, talked at a senior level to the appropriate people in DEFRA. Keep this off the record.

Lunch at the club at 1 p.m. tomorrow?

Yrs,

Andy

Memo

From:

Director of communications, prime minister’s office

To:

Dr Mike Ferguson, director veterinary, food & aquatic sciences, Chief Scientists’ Group

Subject:

Yemen salmon project

Mike,

This is the sort of initiative that the prime minister really, really likes. We want some broad-brush comments on feasibility from you. We do not require anyone to say absolutely that it would work, only that there is no reason for not trying.

Peter

Memo

From:

Dr Michael Ferguson, director veterinary food & aquatic sciences, Chief Scientists’ Group

To:

Peter Maxwell, director of communications, prime minister’s office

Subject:

Yemen salmon project

Dear Mr Maxwell,

Monthly average rainfall in the western mountains of the Yemen is around 400 millimetres in each of the summer months, and mean temperatures at elevations above 2000 metres fall to a range of between 7 and 2,7 degrees Celsius. This is not uncharacteristic of British summer weather and therefore we conclude that for short periods of the year conditions exist, particularly in the western provinces of the Yemen, which are not necessarily inimical to migratory salmonids.

We therefore speculate that a model based on the artificial release and introduction of salmonids into the wadi systems for short periods of the year, linked to a programme of trapping the salmon and returning them to cooler, saline water during other periods of the year, would not be an inappropriate starting point for a modelling exercise to be carried out by the departments with the relevant expertise. I believe NCFE is the most appropriate organisation for this.

I hope this brief note is sufficient for your purposes at this stage?

Yrs,

Michael Ferguson

PS: Have we met?

Memo

From:

Director of communications, prime minister’s office

To:

Dr Mike Ferguson, director veterinary, food & aquatic sciences, Chief Scentists’ Group

Subject:

Yemen salmon project

Mike,

That’s great. No, we haven’t met, but I look forward to it some day soon.

Peter

Memo

From:

Peter

To:

Prime minister

Subject:

Yemen salmon project

PM,

You will really like this. It presses a lot of different buttons:

positive and innovative environmental messages

sporting (cultural?) links to a Middle Eastern country not as yet closely aligned with UK interests

secular Western technology bringing improvements to an Islamic state

a big, positive news story that will take front-page space away from less constructive news items coming out of Iraq, Iran and Saudi

A great photo opportunity: you standing in a wadi with a rod in one hand and a salmon in the other-what an image that would be!

Peter

Memo

From:

Prime minister

To:

Director of communications

Subject:

Yemen salmon project

Peter,

I like it. The photo idea is great!

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