Alexandra Wales - 23-Mar-2007
- The Environment Agency’s fisheries team
will next week be stocking nearly 70,000
elvers at two locations in Yorkshire and
Derbyshire to give a helping hand to this
increasingly threatened species.
On Monday 26 March officers will stock
the River Aire at Rodley with 63,000 elvers,
and a further 6,000 in a lake at The Avenue
Washlands Nature Reserve in Chesterfield.
European eel stocks have been in major
decline since the 1970s and the number of
young eels reaching our shores are thought
to have fallen by more than 95 per cent.
Habitat loss has had a major impact on
eel populations. Weirs, locks and pumping
stations which have been built across the
country form barriers, stopping the elvers
from reaching their ideal habitats.
Elvers are young eels, and are around 7cm
in length, but can take up to 20 years to
reach maturity. The elvers have spent at
least a year drifting across the Atlantic
in the Gulf Stream. They then swim up rivers
to find a suitable place to live and grow,
and when they mature, they return to sea
and swim across the Atlantic to spawn south-west
of Bermuda.
Jerome Masters, fisheries officer at the
Environment Agency said: “Stocking eels
into waters that they can no longer reach
by themselves will increase the number of
eels returning to their spawning grounds.
Stocking is very important for local biodiversity
and eels form an important link in the food
chain as both predators and prey.”
The elvers have been supplied to the Environment
Agency by UK Glass Eel Ltd, and were caught
in the Severn Estuary. The large tides of
the River Severn act as a funnel, sweeping
in larger numbers of elvers than the river
can cope with, so despite the general decline
in eel numbers, elvers can still be taken
from the Severn without harming the ecology.
The Environment Agency has funded £9,000
for the elvers. The project is in partnership
with Rodley Nature Reserve Trust Limited,
Derbyshire Wildlife Trust, the East Midlands
Development Agency and UK Glass Eel Ltd.
More elvers will be stocked at The Avenue
Washlands Nature Reserve next year as part
of an extensive restoration programme at
the former coking and chemical works site.
This work is part of the Environment Agency’s
National Eel Management Plan, which aims
to survey and provide safe habitats for
eels to live. For further information please
see http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/subjects/fish/286019/312590/?lang=_e
Ends
Notes to editors
The photocall at Avenue Coking Works Wetland
Nature Reserve will take place at 12 noon
on Monday 26 March. The meeting place will
be at the main site entrance, south of Chesterfield
off the A61 Derby Road. This is a secure
site, so visitors will need to sign in at
the security barrier.
The photocall at Rodley Nature Reserve
will take place at 1pm on Monday 26 March.
From Rodley Roundabout, take the A657 towards
Leeds. Turn left after 3/4 mile. Cross the
canal and follow signs for the nature reserve.
+ More
Environment Agency boosts fish stocks in
West Yorkshire
Alexandra Wales - 26-Mar-2007 - Environment
Agency officers will be releasing thousands
of fish into the River Aire this week to
boost stocks in the region’s rivers.
Around 2,000 grayling will be brought from
the Environment Agency’s fish farm in Nottinghamshire
and released into the Aire at Bingley and
Silsden Bridge on Wednesday, 28th March.
The grayling, which are around a year old,
will be brought to their new homes on a
six-wheeled fish transporter.
Over recent years there have been improvements
in the number of grayling in the upper River
Aire from Skipton to Bingley, and officers
hope the restocking will further improve
grayling populations and help develop a
sustainable population in the river.
Fisheries technical officer Richard Atkinson
said: “Grayling is native to the River Aire
and we want to see their numbers continue
to increase in that part of the catchment.
This river is the ideal place to release
the fish and give a further boost to stocks
of this important coarse fish.”
The exercise is part of a three-year programme
which targets rivers that would benefit
most from restocking.
