Our club is looking at turning to a wild fishery. We have been fortunate to have recieved much help from the EA towards habitat improvement including advise on work we can do as a club and they also obtained a 'grant' for us and carried out extensive in-river work.

They have identified a serious obstruction for trout accessing a vital spawning stream at the upstream end of our water. There is a small tributary entering the main river after flowing under a road bridge. After leaving the bridge the stream flows down a large concrete ramp that includes a very poorly constructed fish-pass. Only a very small percentage of the fish trying to gain access to the tributary actually make it, the vast majority being washed back downstream again and again. The EA have also identified the tributary as having a much lower poulation of trout than should be expected and have identified this inadequate fish-pass as a major factor in this.

We have been recently investigating ways of remedying the situation and have been looking into the possibilities of grants etc. to improve the pass (things were looking very encouraging in this area). There has been a site meeting with the E.A. and North York's C.C's Bridge Engineer. The NYCC contingent were, apparrently, very negative (one comment was something like "why are you bothered about a few fish, just stock more next time". The Bridge Engineer also made it plain that if there was any structure built to alter the fish pass and the bridge was damaged in any way during a flood the club/EA would be held responsible. After this the EA representitive seems to have 'gone cold' on the project.

Now, I was under the impression that there was a legal obligation to provide unhindered passage to fish at such a construction. Am I correct and if so, who is responsible in this case?

Get, Fish Legal, Onto the case

Jim

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

Try contacting the Wild Trout Trust they are full of good information. In Scotland many of the fishery boards are repairing fish passes or getting rid of them.

try and find out who put it there in the first place ????

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WHEN YOU LEAVE THE RIVER, TAKE NOTHING, AND LEAVE ONLY FOOTPRINT'S!!!

THA CAN TELL A YORKSHIREMAN ,BUT THA CAN'T TELL HIM MUCH !!

The owner of the weir or the owner of the river bed owns the fish pass. If the weir had financial potential in some way you would very soon know who it belongs to, as it seems like a liability, you are going to have some doors shut in your face before you know the truth. Highways are brilliant at pouring cold water over any project that doesn't do them a service and it is easy to spook people in this litigous society. Can you not reshape the flume or install baffles to aid fish passage? Have you got a photo please?

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Thanks fellas. We are in the process of working out some low cost solution as you suggest. I believe the pass was installed by highways dept but will try to clarify. Also I will try to get a meaningfull photo but I am a bit of a 'Luddite' so not good with technicalities of posting said pic etc.

Simply upload the photo from your camera and put it through photobucket, then copy and paste the IMG code found beneath the image into your post.

Alternatively you could post it as an attachment, however I'm not sure what the file size limits are (i.e JPEG).

if that is the case, they know damn fine what their obligations are under the law, and will try to drag their heels regarding their obligations of said laws.
as jim says drop a note to fish legal re situation. you will be stunned how quick the highways department start to help.
regards
bert

... a dangerous thing; a most excellent river keeper with a legal training