Just over one year on from the devastating pollution of the River Crane, the Environment Agency has begun a programme of fish restocking.

In October 2011, a tsunami of raw sewage was released into the river following a failure in part of Thames Water’s infrastructure, resulting in a major pollution incident which affected 7 miles of river.

The severity of the pollution incident and its impact on the river saw nearly all aquatic life eradicated, killing in excess of 10,000 fish and millions of invertebrates. The clean-up operation has taken many months and if not for the high spring and summer flows, the river would not yet be in a suitable position to receive new life.

However, in late December, 5,500 1-2 year-old fish were introduced including barbel, dace, roach and chub, all from the Environment Agency’s Calverton Fish Farm near Nottingham.

A Thames Anglers’ Conservancy spokesman said:
“While we welcome this early restocking of the river, we would like to see more mature fish going in as well. The EA provided fish from their Calverton Fish Farm but they are unlikely to reach sexual maturity for several years and therefore the population has little chance of naturally increasing. We are working from within the Crane Valley Partnership and along with Thames Water, looking at the possibility of other sources of fish, so varying the age range. Other species such as perch cannot be stocked by the EA so we will push for all other avenues to be considered.”

The lengthy criminal investigation into the pollution incident is still in progress.