Efforts to help sea trout, and possibly salmon, migrate to their River Sid spawning grounds have restarted.

Nine volunteers from the River Sid Catchment Group and three staff members from the Environment Agency carried out the autumn net and lift operation, transporting fish past School Weir in The Byes on Thursday, November 7.

The River Sid and its tributaries have long been the spawning ground for trout and salmon.

In recent decades the populations of migrating fish have steadily declined across northern European rivers.

The volunteers and Environment Agency staff setting the net (Image: River Sid Catchment Group) Recent electro-fishing surveys in the Sid catchment have found fewer trout than were found in 2014.

There are a number of wider reasons but the 3m high School Weir, built as part of the defences after the devastating flood of 1968, is a serious barrier for the local fish.

In the past, local enthusiasts from the fishing community came together each autumn to rescue fish trapped at the foot of the weir and to release them upstream to complete their migration to the spawning grounds in the gravels above Sidbury - this came to a halt with Covid.

The operation needs a lot of planning and official permissions but, in the week that the recently formed River Sid Catchment Group launched their River Sid Catchment Plan, they managed to get it done.

They were able to track down members of the former rescue group and were delighted that some were able to help.

There were quite a few trout seen in the river last month which is the peak time for the rescue.

Rescued sea trout in a net following the operation (Image: River Sid Catchment Group) Numbers have dropped since then and only three trout were saved in the delayed operation.

As everything is now back in place, the group hope for a better return next year, possibly even a few salmon, one was helped upstream in the last rescue in 2019.

Charles Sinclair, one of the project co-ordinators said: "Thank you to the wonderful team that helped on the fish rescue at School Weir on Thursday, especially Mike Flynn who led the netting and Jessica Ring and her team from the Environment Agency.

"Helping these fish who naturally want to migrate up to the top of the river system to spawn is really important.

"It is heartening to hear the support in the town for altering School Weir so that salmon, trout and eels can have uninterrupted access to the river again."