THOUSANDS of young salmon have been released into rivers feeding into the Severn.

The Environment Agency fisheries team from Midlands West Area has released a total of 60,000 young Atlantic salmon into the River Teme and River Leadon as part of the Severn Salmon Restoration Programme.

A further 75,000 salmon have been stocked in the Severn catchment by Environment Agency colleagues in Wales.

Over the past two weeks salmon reared this year at the Environment Agency Wales Clywedog Hatchery have been released into rivers that lead into the Severn. The work is part of an ongoing project to re-establish a sustainable population of Atlantic salmon in the area.  

The agency monitors the River Severn and its tributaries constantly to measure salmon levels. In parts of the Severn catchment numbers of salmon have declined or have disappeared completely.

This can be down to a number of reasons: pollution, poor habitat or obstacles such as weirs that stop adult salmon returning from sea to their historical spawning grounds. The Severn Salmon Restoration Programme aims to restore these stretches and once remedial works have been completed, the Clywedog hatchery run by Welsh region provides young salmon for introduction.

Over the next few weeks the cycle to produce salmon required for next year's stocking programme will start again. As the adult salmon return to local rivers, Environment Agency staff say they will collect enough suitable adult fish. Eggs from these sexually mature adults will be collected and then placed in the hatchery. Early in the new year young salmon, known as fry, will emerge from these eggs. Those young fish will then be held in large tanks until fit enough to be released, completing the cycle.

It is believed that the young salmon will stay in the Severn catchment for up to two winters, where they will feed and grow to around 120mm. During this time they will develop their common silvery colour and a tolerance for seawater.  The salmon will then start their arduous journey down the River Severn into the Severn Estuary and eventually into the Atlantic.

Chris Bainger, Environment Agency Fisheries technical specialist said of the programme: "Salmon stocks in England and Wales continue to be in a depleted state. We have worked very hard in the Severn catchment trying to reverse this trend.

"These restorative stocking programmes will kickstart the population to parts of catchment where obstacles to  Salmon migration have been removed. The European Water Framework Directive requirement to get all rivers to good ecological status by 2027 will also help bring about improvements, especially with regard  to the removal of barriers to Salmon migration."