Salmon are making a comeback in the River Valency – the main river flowing through Boscastle.
In 2004 more than 70 vehicles were washed out of Boscastle car park and into the harbour after the River Valency burst its banks in one of the worst floods in living memory. A number of local buildings were extensively damaged.
The flood waters also swept away salmon spawning gravel and most of the young fish in the river at the time. This exceptional event resulted in local salmon and trout numbers slumping to a 20 year low.
Four years on the once turbulent Valency is flowing more sedately and the risk of further flood devastation has been reduced thanks to a £5 million Environment Agency flood defence scheme due to be completed this summer.
Agency officers recently carried out a fish rescue on the River Valency to enable contractors to build a storage lagoon upstream of the main Boscastle car park. As well as brown trout and eels, they found a surprising number of young salmon or smolts.
The young salmon were re-located further down the Valency away from the area where the contractors were about to start work. Two years old and approximately six inches in length, the smolts are ready to leave the river and migrate to sea.
‘We are delighted Boscastle still has a thriving population of salmon after all the work that has taken place since the 2004. Hopefully, some of the smolts rescued by the Agency will mature at sea and return to the Valency to spawn. Despite the national decline in salmon stocks, many rivers in Cornwall have healthy or increasing fish numbers’ said Simon Toms for the Environment Agency.
‘Salmon are highly sensitive to the quality of their surroundings. The increase in numbers is probably due to several factors including habitat improvements, a reduction in the netting of wild salmon at sea and the efforts of local people, landowners and businesses,’ said Simon Toms.
As well as the Valency, the Agency recently found salmon on the Porth River near Newquay and sea trout in Bude Canal.
The Agency does not normally monitor fish numbers on the Valency and directs its resources, instead, on Cornwall’s larger rivers such as the Camel and Fowey that have their own Salmon Action Plans. The fish rescue operation at Boscastle provided officers with a valuable opportunity to carry out a health check on the river.
