..you'll see the salmon leaping" - was that a song by Alex Glasgow a Geordie singer in the 70's? It imagined that the forecasts by ecologists that the Tyne would at any minute see salmon returning to the river could possibly be optimistic.
It seems that the salmon of the Garonne are also on the verge of returning in large numbers for the first time since the 80's. Unfortunately the higher reaches are so given over to hydro-electric stations that the fish are unable to get up to the spawning grounds. Many appear to have diverted into the Ariege, but fisheries conservationists employed by EDF are counting fish as they pass the Golfech nuclear power station and collecting them further up river and transporting them by lorry. Then upstream of all the barrages they are released. Of course, the reverse journey needs also to be facilitated. It is thought that this year a record number of salmon smelt will be on their way to the north Atlantic. Any minute now we will see salmon passing by the weirs of the Aveyron in Varen.
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