I’m at the salmon hatchery at Kielder water. It was built to replace the old spawning area of the river that the fish used to swim up to until the reservoir and holding dam prevented them coming any further. An 8 step fish jump would have cost £1x million, would not necessarily be fish friendly,  so the hatchery seemed a good option. I’m impressed. Ready to go hens and cocks (why the chicken vocab with fish?) are caught in soft electric nets in November, transported back here in huge tanks, squeezed and squirted respectively, the fertilized eggs then laid in gravel simulated conditions until they hatch. Precise methods are used to maintain as wild/natural conditions as possible,  water being pumped in direct from the Kielder burn with no heating or treatment or filtering. We discuss whether this approach does benefit this endangered species, (I’m discovering how hardy and seemingly stupid salmon are – curious, a comparison to chicken brain ability is mooted),  and is not damaging its gene pool. This is a 1 year old salmon. I’m so excited to see it and its companions and am equally surprised how small they are.  I attempt to record them but they make not a sound. Salmon are silent to human ears, though the whirlpools of their huge fibre glass containers are great rhythm makers.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 9th, 2010 at 10:00 am and is filed under news. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.