River Severn, cleaner than it was?

[WhichDoctor]

I've been walking along the river around Shrewsbury as well as boating and kayaking on it for years but recently I've started noticing more and more sines of life in it. More water birds, more fish, more water plants, clearer water and freshwater mussel shells everywhere. Especially fish and water-plants, the river seems to be heaving with fish of all sizes from minnows to quite big ones (sorry I don't know much about fish but I often see fishermen pulling quite respectable sized fish out of the water) and aquatic plants seem to be everywhere and im shore I don't remember them being there before.

Have any of you guys noticed a improvement in the quality of the Severn's water or is it just that im taking more of an interest and therefor seeing things that have been there all along.

I would be interested to know your observations and thoughts

 

[Ogri the trog]

I hope you're right Witchdoctor,
here in Mid Wales, we're right at the start of the river, so its straight out of the Severn Forest, Clwydog Dam, and off the mountains. I don't get to see it after it has been used and (hopefully not) abused downstream. Theres a riverside walk here which was washed free of accumilated detritus prior to the recent floods - so I'm very aware that our local rubbish has gone downriver somewhere - though it looks good for now - my apologies to those further along the riverside.

Ogri the trog

 

[Radix lecti]

The Severn is still the muddy brown it has always been coming through my neck of the woods ( Gloucester )
Regards
Darren

 

[nobby]

The Thames has had many fish back for a few years and I doubt that the Severn has ever been as polluted as the Thames. I visited a pumping and filtering station near Kidderminster the year before last and the filter plants had some huge fish in.
Muddy coloured water only shows that there is sediment in it.

 

[WhichDoctor]

The murky water can also be coursed by nitrate pollution promoting algae growth but yes a lot of it is sediment. At the moment at least I can see a good 2-ft into the water witch I don't remember ever being able to before and of cores that will help the water plants and everything ells.

 

[spamel]

I believe you can tell the health and cleanliness of a river by the type of fish present aswell as the types of plant and insect life. I am pretty sure the river needs to be very clean for salmon to be present, so if you see any, you have a good clean river.

Funnily enough, when I was based in Hameln, thousands of Salmon fry were transported in as the Weser had been cleaned up and they wanted to re introduce the salmon to the river. I don't know if this was a success or not.

 

[WhichDoctor]

Well in the season you can occasionally see salmon trying to jump the weir in town, not shore how many there are but there are certainly some there.

As far as I understand shellfish and mollusks are also supposed to indicate clean water and you can find mussel and snail shells on every beach.