Stroud school children help endangered species
Pupils have released endangered eels into the River Frome.
School children from Stroud Valley Primary School have released critically endangered eels back into the River Frome, after taking care of them in their classroom.
Eels have been housed in tanks at Stroud Valley School over the last six weeks, giving them time to grow and the children a chance to learn about a critically endangered species.
In the past 40 years, European eels have declined by over 90%, as a result of habitat loss, climate change, and illegal fishing. Without human intervention the eels are going to become extinct.
The elvers were introduced by Cotswold Canals Connected (CCC), a collaborative project between Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust, Stroud District Council and Cotswold Canals Trust.
The Eels in the Classroom project is being run by Bristol Avon Rivers Trust and the Sustainable Eel Group Group. The initiative is linking schools across the country with the river conservation project.
Tony Chalk, from the CCC, said: "We've put eels into various schools who have been nurturing them for four to six weeks, until they are healthy enough to be put back into their natural habitat- which is what we are doing today.
"Although this is their natural habitat they have no chance of getting here themselves because of obstacles in the river, and that is one of the main reasons why they are endangered. Over hundreds of years we have been building weirs and dams which prevent migrating fish being able to move up and down rivers.
"This project will allow them to live out their main part of their life in the canal before they are ready to move back into the sea."