Another useful day highlighting a worldwide problem which is a major issue in UK Rivers – I wonder what happened to the Government’s promised legislation?
Environment Agency: More than 20,000km of England’s rivers have been opened up to improve fish migration over the last 4 years – the equivalent distance of London to Rio and back – the Environment Agency reveals on World Fish Migration Day (21st May). Almost 200 obstructions have been overcome – this means fish passes installed or weirs removed. Migration is important because many species of fish need to migrate to reproduce, feed and complete their life cycles. Weir removals and fish passes create ‘fish highways’ making a faster, easier route from the sea right up to the upper reaches of rivers. It’s not always possible to remove all weirs – for example, many are still being used and can’t be removed if buildings, walls or bridges could be damaged, where the risk of flooding would increase or if there is heritage interest. In these cases fish passes are the solution.
This Agency comment was in response to the international World Fish Migration day programme and for more details and material go to this link