At Funtley on the River Meon a joint operation between the Environment Agency’s Operations Delivery team and Fisheries and Biodiversity team has successfully updated a poorly functioning fish pass. The existing pass was a Denil Fish Pass with baffles that were too large for the available flow at the location and it was also set too low in the channel.
The operation required removing the pass and replacing it with a new aluminium Alaskan A model, which was chosen as being more appropriate for the flow characteristics at the site.
The procedure required moments of innovation, ingenuity, adaptation and occasional frantic head scratching. Under the expert direction of Ross Knowles and technical guidance from Cormac Meenehan the fish pass will now work more effectively, for a longer period of the year and for a wider range of fish species. This will help give the fish pass more resilience against the impact of climate change.
