Desperate rescue effort to save fish as low water levels prevent them from swimming upstream to breed.


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"Salmon are very sensitive to disturbance and could not be rescued with nets, as the stress would have killed them."


Isn't catching them in nets exactly what they do to catch brood fish to harvest the eggs and milt from? I heard it quoted on here that if handled properly the brood fish have a near 100% survival rate so why is it so different here? The EA must be incorrect on one of the two accounts surely?

Dan

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http://eclecticangler.blogspot.com/

ABout 10 years ago the salmon in a local river got trapped by low water at a weir,The poachers were having a field day.So SEPA along with the DSFB netted all the fish and lifted them over the weir.no harm came to the fish.And the excercise was declared 100% successful.

Jim

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The Fishermans Friend is the Flirty Fly,Fickle Food for Fleeting Fish.

The report distorts what the EA said. This is from the text of the official press release.

'A large number of adult salmon running the River Teme to reach their spawning grounds have become trapped between weirs because of low flows. A brief period of rain recently brought the fish up river, but that flow dropped off before the majority of salmonwere able to negotiate the Ludlow Weirs.

The salmon stuck at these locations are very near to spawning (gravid) and are very sensitive to disturbance. Catching and moving these fish upstream [I]could cause additional stress which [I]may[/I] kill them, therefore a fish rescue has been discounted.

The Environment Agency have considered a number of options to assist the salmon, and after discussions with our partners, the Teme Weirs Trust, Friends of Whitcliffe Common and the Dinham Millenium Green Trust, we are now able to begin making temporary improvements to the weirs so that the salmon are able to move upstream on their own.'[/I]
The modifications to the weir have been a success. But if it hadn't worked the EA were prepared to look again at the option of a fish rescue.

Environment Agency help trapped salmon on the River Teme | Severn Rivers Trust - preserving and caring for the Severn catchment

Temporary fish passes on the Teme | Severn Rivers Trust - preserving and caring for the Severn catchment