SALMON stocks on the rivers Test and Itchen are still at worryingly low levels, says a new report.
The latest salmon counter report states that the UK's top three chalk streams, the Test, Itchen, and Frome in Gloucestershire have seen a below long-term average number of salmon returning this year.
The most recently published reports from the Environment Agency (EA) and Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT) on the three rivers, show stocks far below the norm.
The results this year seriously differs from 2020, a year of lockdown, which saw healthier numbers of returning salmon on the Test and Itchen.
In 2020 the annual programme of Test and Itchen salmon parr, trout and lamprey surveys were completed in full, yielding valuable results on those and other species.
Salmon counters were checked throughout the 2020 run, which proved to be healthier on both Test and Itchen.
Information gathered in the recent reports clarifies the reasons for changing patterns of salmon migration in the southern chalk streams such as the Test and Itchen, and the reduction of activity throughout the warmest part of the summer.
It also highlights the increasing pressure on salmon resulting from more frequent and intense summer heatwaves, especially when combined with low river flow.
The reasons for the chronic decline are unknown but overfishing in the Atlantic and pollution have been blamed.
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