European Fish Migration Day @ Tees Barrage 14th May

[Jamie]

Hi,

thought this may interest some. Details are at:- http://www.teesriverstrust.org/

Regards,
Jamie

[A McLee]

Fish migration and Tees Barrage is something of an oxymoron. I for one will be intrigued as to how the new modifications to the white water area, are going to remove the reluctance of migratory fish to use this passage upstream since they used it little before. In fact as little as they used the official " fish pass" - that narrow gutter adjacent to the N side of the barrage. Anyone interested in fish, fishing or even biodiversity should pay a visit to this open day public relations exercise.
Alistair McLee

[A McLee]

Well I went along and was quietly impressed. If the migratory fish can be persuaded to enter the canoe slalom through the existing penstocks, then their choice of 2 routes to ascend to the upper water, look infinitely better than the pitiful gutter, with side baffles , which the E A approved in 1994 as the fish pass for the barrage There has been some thought for birds using the area too and we shall have to see how successful they are and the club will make appprepriate comments in due course.
Tagging of sea trout returning to the sea , using radio transmitters, had shown that Tees fish headed south off East Anglia. Recieving devices, fitted to marine buoys, and having a 200m detection range had flagged up a 5% return on tagged fish. Bird ringers would be delighted with that sort of return!
A McLee