A ONCE-POLLUTED beck will become home to thousands of young sea trout as part of an Environment Agency project to restock the area.
Skelton Beck was devastated when it was polluted with pig slurry in March 2012, stripping oxygen out of the water and killing trout, salmon and minnows over a significant stretch.
To bring the beck back to life, Environment Agency fisheries experts started a programme of restocking fish which have been reared at its Kielder Hatchery in Northumberland.
This will eventually see about 84,000 young fish released into Skelton Beck, which flows between Guisborough and Saltburn, at several locations.
The latest release took place yesterday (Thursday, July 16) when 26,000 young sea trout – known as fry – were put into the waterway.
Environment Agency fisheries officer Paul Frear said: “Pollution incidents can decimate watercourses and so we occasionally need to give nature a helping hand by stocking fish which otherwise can take decades to naturally re-colonise rivers and streams.”
The Yorkshire Esk Rivers Trust has helped the project by donating fish to breed from, with the adults returned to the River Esk along with thousands of juveniles to boost stocks there.
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