FUNDACION EDPNews

The River Nalón has 10,000 new specimens of brown trout. This resulted from the release of fingerlings on Wednesday by more than 50 students from the Colegio Elena Sanchez Tamargo, in Pola de Laviana. This activity, which was promoted by the Fishermen's Association and Friends of the Nalón, in collaboration with the EDP Foundation, took place in the main channel of the river in the Fontoria Nueva district.

In addition to releasing the fingerlings, the primary school students also learnt about the characteristics of the fish and the environmental importance of these types of actions regarding fish. This initiative provides continuity to the work of the Fishermen's Association by getting students from all of the towns and schools in the Nalón Valley to take part in re-stocking the river.

The objective of this release, as Mario Carbajosa, the Vice Chairman of the Association, pointed out, "is to promote respect for, improvement in and recovery of the environment in general and the river channels, their environment and the fish population that they accommodate in particular".

Brown trout are native to Asturias. Those used in the release were bred at the facilities of the Fishermen's Association and measured between 8 and 12 centimetres. They were obtained from their own spawners and all of the processes were phytosanitarily controlled and monitored by the Ministry of Livestock Farming and Regional Natural Resources. With this release, the Association brought this year's campaign to end, in which it has spawned and released 150,000 fingerlings.

The EDP Foundation has collaborated with the Fishermen's Association and Friends of the Nalón for over fifteen years, promoting activities to recover the river habitat and improve the environment. This commitment by the Foundation to re-stocking fish extends to other Asturian rivers, with the support of the Royal Asturian River Fishing Association.