Environment Agency's eel pass lends creatures a helping fin
A major project to create an eel pass on a Gloucestershire river has been completed by the Environment Agency.
The two-year project will help critically endangered European eels as they migrate as part of their life cycle.
The pass has been constructed at the confluence of the River Avon and River Severn at Tewkesbury, and opens up 26.7 km of the River Avon to the slippery creatures.
Eels are an important part of the water environment, feeding on invertebrates, fish, molluscs and crustaceans, helping to recycle nutrients and are an important food source for many species.
The European eel has an extraordinary life cycle: adult eels spawn in the Sargasso Sea on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean and larvae return on ocean currents towards the coasts of Europe and North Africa.
The European eel enters rivers and lakes and spends anything from 5 to 20 years feeding and growing into adult eels. It then returns to sea as a ‘silver eel’ and swims over 3500 miles back to spawn in the Sargasso Sea.
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Patrick O’Donnell, Project Manager for the Environment Agency, said: “To comply with the Eels (England and Wales) Regulations 2009, we had a legal obligation to provide eel passage at Abbey Mill sluice and Stanchard Pit weir as these two structures are the first obstructions to eel passage on the River Avon.
“Delivering the two new eel passes will provide effective eel passage at both these sites to allow the safe migration of eels into the river systems, to complete their life cycle.
“As the Abbey Mill sluice is located close to the Grade II-listed Abbey Mill, we needed to minimise the visual impact of the eel pass, while still maintaining a fully functioning passage for the European eel.”
