We have been heavily involved in the large ‘Unlocking the River Severn’ project, spearheaded by Severn Rivers Trust and the Canal and Rivers Trust, for the last couple of years. Aimed at restoring runs of shad to the River Severn, Fishtek have worked with Arcadis to deliver the designs for several large fish passes on the navigation weirs on the lower Severn. Once installed, these will enable shad (which are currently prevented from migrating up the river) to return to their native range.
As an additional part of the project, we have been commissioned to install a fish counter at a tidal weir below where the first fish pass is proposed. Earlier this week, one of the Severn Rivers Trust team Tim Thorpe took this fantastic footage of a twaite shad going up over the fish counter. Heartening to see and hopefully a portent of things to come up the entire length of the river in the future.