A LARGE barbel has been caught on camera swimming through the Diglis Fish Pass.
The video was filmed by Unlocking the Severn staff members, at the viewing window in the Diglis Fish Pass.
In the video, the fish rises to the centre of the window before darting out of sight behind the wall.
The barbel is one of many seen making their way through the fish pass in the last two weeks.
The barbel is from a group of small carp-like freshwater fish which are typically found in gravel and rocky-bottomed slow-flowing waters with high dissolved oxygen content.
The Fish Pass was previously home to a resident barbel, who the team named affectionately named Barry, which stayed in the fish pass for three weeks.
What is a Fish Pass?
The purpose of a fish pass is to allow fish to move past manmade blockages in water. In Diglis, the weir means that many fish looking to travel upstream struggle due to the two-metre separation.
The weir was installed in the 1840s to create a deeper, more reliable pool of water upstream for boats.
Stronger fish like salmon are occasionally able to get past the weir by jumping, but many species do not possess the required strength.
The pass consists of 11 small pools, each just 20 cm higher than the last, making it more manageable for the fish to swim through.
The fish detect the stream of water in the river and can travel upwards, with walls in each pool relieving some of the force created by the water.
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For more information about the Diglis Fish Pass and to book trips, visit https://www.unlockingthesevern.co.uk/august-events-at-diglis-fish-pass/.
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