WEIR WORKS TO HELP MIGRATING FISH UPSTREAM COMPLETED

A FLOOD monitoring weir on a Gwynedd river has been modified to make it easier for migrating fish and eels to navigate past it.

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A weir on the Afon Gwrfai at Bontnewydd, Gwynedd, has been changed from a series of ramps to a rocky riverbed to make it easier for migrating fish and eels. Above, partial dam during the works; right top to bottom, the weir before and after the works.

(PICS: NATURAL RESOURCES WALES (NRW))

The site, at Bontnewydd near Caernarfon, is a gauging station for measuring river levels on the Afon Gwyrfai.

The river, which empties into Foryd Bay, is an important spawning habitat for both salmon and trout. It originates on the slopes of Yr Wyddfa (Snowdon) and flows for just 13 miles after passing through two lakes - Llyn y Gader and Llyn Cwellyn.

Electrofishing surveys have shown the river supports good numbers of juvenile salmon. However, numbers of the mysterious European eel, which spawns in the North Atlantic Sargasso Sea, have plummeted in recent decades.