River Blythe fish pass

Monitoring work by the Environment Agency has provided promising signs that work carried out in late 2014 by the Wild Trout Trust in partnership with South Staffordshire Water plc has improved fish passage at a weir on the River Blithe in Staffordshire. 

The site is an abstraction point for Blithfield reservoir and a fish pass was installed there over a decade ago, but subsequent monitoring raised concerns over its efficiency, with very few records of fish using the pass. The suspected problem was that water depths at the downstream end of the pass were too shallow, so with WTT advice and practical assistance, a ​“pre-barrage” was installed. This has raised water levels below the fish pass and monitoring since its installation has shown a number of fish have used the pass. 

It is still early days and monitoring will continue to assess the need for further improvements at the site.

Fish pass on the River Blithe, Staffordshire, with the recently installed notched pre-barrage downstream:

Photos below, top to bottom : chub, perch and pike using the fish pass this Spring. The trout spawning migration period in autumn is awaited with interest! Pictures courtesy of Environment Agency.