Fish monitoring in hiatus as equipment breaks again
PA MediaFish counters which monitor fish stocks on "England's best salmon river" have broken once again, having been damaged last autumn two months after long-awaited repair work.
The fish pass on the River Tyne - at Riding Mill in Northumberland - has been fitted with a monitor to check the water body's salmon and sea trout populations since 1996.
The monitor broke in July 2023 and was not fixed for 11 months while the Environment Agency (EA) waited for "safe and suitable" conditions.
But the new installation was only fully operational for two months before one of four channels broke last October, with the EA saying repairs are expected to take place early this summer.
The EA said the channel on the monitor broke due to high flows in the "dynamic" river, which typically carries a large amount of debris downstream.
It means, since October, the agency has only been able to record partial fish counts for the Tyne.
However, the agency said it was confident in its ability to "estimate the number of fish" in the meantime, using a range of techniques.
In addition, fish counters on the River Wear broke in their entirety at start of this year, meaning no fish counts have subsequently been recorded for the Wear. The EA said it was still investigating.
Sudden flood events
Both the Tyne and the Wear contain populations of sea trout and salmon.
The counters help river and fishery managers "decide what actions" are needed to try and ensure the sustainability of thosee populations, said Dr Philip Smith, at the University of Aberdeen.
Two years ago, in 2023, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) reclassified the Atlantic salmon from "least concern" to "endangered" in Great Britain due to a 30–50% decline in British populations since 2006.
"It is more important than ever that we accurately monitor salmon numbers across key rivers such as the Tyne and Wear, so that we can track both short and long-term trends in population size," said said Dr Anna Sturrock, of the University of Essex.
But she also said that sudden flood events can damage river counting equipment, and with climate change "these events are likely to become more frequent".
"[This will require] additional time and funding for maintenance," she added.
PAThe EA said it can only repair fish counters during "safe and suitable" conditions, which meant installation work tended to take place in the summer.
It cited the repairs to its counting site on the Tyne as particularly "complex", in part because water had to be diverted away from a weir before the work could begin.
The agency said it was looking into how to install counters which are less susceptible to damage.