This raises some interesting points about the viability of introduced fish:
BBC Nature - Healthy Thames 'key for return of salmon'

Maybe better to have the hatchery on the river thats being stocked and to stock it with the progeny of the fish from that river.
Strangely the Wye has been in the doldrums over the past 15 years and despite there being other salmon rivers close by none seem to have strayed to help rebuild the stocks. The Tyne was restocked with a mixture of fish from the Tweed, Dee, Coquet, Wear and Tay.

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The word 'politics' is derived from the word 'poly', meaning 'many', and the word 'ticks', meaning 'blood sucking parasites'

But the recovery started prior to the hatchery on the Tyne - coinciding with the clean up of the estuary.

Enjoy

Mr. D.V.L.S Advocate

Mr. D.V.L.S Advocate

lol

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The word 'politics' is derived from the word 'poly', meaning 'many', and the word 'ticks', meaning 'blood sucking parasites'

The fact of the matter is the Wye fish are from the Rhine.....that is why they they are so big.
who gives a flying **** where the fish originated.............lets have more fish
The only people who argue "genetic integrity" are idiots employed by the government.
So......iI have now ****** off 75% of the members of this forum.
Mindless civil servants who rape our economy by knowing **** all....doing **** all,,,,,,,but making **** loads of money
some country we live in
M

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www.bloke-rods.co.uk

So glad I never bought anything from you Mr Bloke.

Yes, there is a case showing the Wye was remarkably transformed by the stocking of Rhine juvenile salmon by Frank Buckland - H.M. Inspector of Fisheries in the 1860s. The Wye portmanteaux were long and heavy just like those of the Thames fish used to be.
When the ice sheets of the last Ice Age finally lifted, about 12,000 years ago, to reveal the Thames, we were still connected to continental Europe, a major tributary of the Rhine, the estuary only becoming the English Channel when sea levels eventually rose. Therefore I've no doubt they were of genetically the same stock. Sadly the Rhine salmon followed those of the Thames into total extinction, but only half a century ago.
The longest salmon catalogued at the South Kensington Museum was a Rhine example of 4' 8" weighing 69 lbs. The same museum mentions a 70 pounder taken near Fulham in 1789.
Sobering to think that the only remnants of this 4+ SW strain run into the upper reaches of the Wye and Elan tributary. Numbers reduced by 98% in the last 30 years. I think the "idiots employed by the goverment" ought to look at saving them - surely there is a duty of care - before its too late?

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Save the softmouth trout

Did try to access the report there on the infolite article from the beeb ,but thought $31 was a bit steep!

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Andy Wren
Winter grayling taking a year off !
Claret not just a great dubbing colour!

Ella, I think this has been fairly well picked over in various Wye threads on various boards over the years, but to reiterate, I really don't think there's any hard evidence to support the theory that the Wye portmanteaux strain descends from Rhine fish - let alone, as Mick seems to suggest, that all Wye fish descend from that stocking of just 600-700 juvenile fish.

I think that even Geoff Franks, who is firmly in the anti-scientist and pro-stocking camp, agrees with me that the spectacular recovery of the Wye from its previous low point at the turn of the last century was not a result of the Rhine stocking but actually arose from naturally spawning native Wye stock. Remember that, unlike the Thames (and like the Tyne), salmon were never extinct in the Wye, merely heavily depleted.

But if you actually have any real evidence that the Rhine stocking was responsible, do please share it.

I worked for a company in the eighties that supplied salmon fry to restock the thames, if I remember there was 1/4 million fry supplied these would have been from west coast stock but I cant remember which, the stocking took place in 1985, easker1