NEARLY half a million fish were released into England’s rivers, lakes and canals last year – and they’re some of the largest and most resilient specimens ever to be stocked.
The Environment Agency’s Calverton Fish Farm in Nottinghamshire has revealed that 455,439 fish were introduced into a wide range of venues to help stimulate natural recruitment, and barbel made up over a quarter of the total.
Most of the fish were stocked down the eastern side of the country, with waters in the North East, Anglian and South East regions getting almost 80 per cent of the total.
READ THE FULL STORY FROM LAST WEEK'S MAGAZINE HERE.
EA 2022/23 STOCKING FIGURES
Species Stocked
Chub - 11.8%
Dace - 9.4%
Roach - 14.6%
Bream - 12.5%
Barbel - 27.9%
Tench - 5.6%
Crucians - 5.1%
Rudd - 4.3%
Grayling - 8.8%
Regional breakdown
Anglian - 25.3%
Midlands - 9.1%
North East - 22.9%
North West - 9.3%
South East - 31.1%
South West - 2.3%