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THE ORIGINS OF THE
YEMEN SALMON PROJECT
Fitzharris & Price
Land Agents & Consultants
St Jamess Street
London
Dr Alfred Jones
National Centre for Fisheries Excellence
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Smith Square
London
15 May
Dear Dr Jones
We have been referred to you by Peter Sullivan at the Foreign & Commonwealth Office (Directorate for Middle East and North Africa). We act on behalf of a client with access to very substantial funds, who has indicated his wish to sponsor a project to introduce salmon, and the sport of salmon fishing, into the Yemen.
We recognise the challenging nature of such a project, but we have been assured that the expertise exists within your organisation to research and project manage such work, which of course would bring international recognition and very ample compensation for any fisheries scientists who became involved. Without going into any further details at this time, we would like to seek a meeting with you to identify how such a project could be initiated and resourced, so that we may report back to our client and seek further instructions.
We wish to emphasise that this is regarded by our client, who is a very eminent Yemeni citizen, as a flagship project for his country. He has asked us to make clear that there will be no unreasonable financial constraints. The Foreign & Commonwealth Office supports this project as a symbol of Anglo-Yemeni cooperation.
Yours sincerely
(Ms) Harriet Chetwode-Talbot
National Centre for Fisheries Excellence
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Smith Square
London
Ms Harriet Chetwode-Talbot
Fitzharris & Price
Land Agents & Consultants
St Jamess Street
London
1 June
Dear Ms Chetwode-Talbot
Dr Jones has asked me to thank you for your letter dated 15 May and reply as follows.
Migratory salmonids require cool, well-oxygenated water in which to spawn. In addition, in the early stages of the salmon life cycle, a good supply of fly life indigenous to northern European rivers is necessary for the juvenile salmon parr to survive. Once the salmon parr evolves into its smolt form, it then heads downriver and enters saltwater. The salmon then makes its way to feeding grounds off Iceland, the Faroes or Greenland. Optimum sea temperatures for the salmon and its natural food sources are between 5 and 10 degrees Celsius.
We conclude that conditions in the Yemen and its geographical location relatively remote from the North Atlantic make the project your client has proposed unfeasible, on a number of fundamental grounds. We therefore regret we will be unable to help you any further in this matter.
Yours sincerely
Ms Sally Thomas (Assistant to Dr Jones)
Office of the Director, National Centre for Fisheries Excellence
From: David Sugden
To: Dr Alfred Jones