The Environment Agency’s National Coarse Fish Farm near Calverton, Nottinghamshire, is continuing to break records for producing healthy fish for re-stocking.
These fish play an important role in the work of the Environment Agency and its partners to restore, improve and develop sustainable fisheries in England.
In 2017 the fish farm produced 9 tonnes of strong healthy fish, an increase from the 6 tonnes produced in 2016.
Over the 12 months the farm bred more than 350,000 fish, with the average size and quality of each fish increasing on previous years.
In 2017, Calverton Fish Farm also stocked out over 6,000,000 advanced reared larvae back into the wild. Some of these larvae were introduced into waters where natural reproduction has previously been poor. They help to give the resident fish populations a boost to become self-sustainable in the future.
The main reasons for stocking Calverton-bred fish and larvae are: replacing stocks lost to pollution or following habitat or water quality improvements; improving stocks where natural reproduction is low; and helping to create fisheries in areas where there is a shortage of angling opportunities.
Kevin Austin, Environment Agency Deputy Director Agriculture, Fisheries and the Natural Environment said:
The work of Calverton fish farm is funded by income from fishing licence fees so it’s great to see it continuing its work producing the healthy fish needed for recovery and re-stocking.
Alan Henshaw, Calverton Fish Farm Team Leader said:
We’ve achieved increases in weight by improving the growing conditions for the fish and by mixing the species up more to find groups that grow well together. Having a highly dedicated and professional team that are producing fish of such high quality is also key to the success of Calverton.
Our annual production of fish by overall weight has more than doubled since 2013. This is a huge increase and a great achievement on the part of the team. Production of these bigger, stronger, fitter, disease-free fish means that they are better able to cope with life in the wild when we release them.
When they reached 18 months old, the 358,552 fish produced in 2017 were restocked into rivers, lakes and ponds as part of re-stocking programmes across England.
The fish breeding process is complex and involves the team at Calverton removing the sperm and eggs by hand from the fish. The eggs are laid out in specialist trays and placed inside troughs, where they receive a fresh, temperature controlled water supply. The eggs are incubated for between three and 30 days depending on species and when the eggs have hatched, the larvae are fed with tiny shrimp.
Notes to editors
In 2017, the number of each species of fish released was:
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Barbel – 10,020
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Bream – 46,910
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Chub – 57,359
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Roach – 70,525
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Dace – 47,818
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Rudd – 12,280
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Tench – 23,080
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Crucian carp -16,560
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Grayling – 74,000
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