Fundación EDPNews

Over 40 students from the Alto Nalón Joint Rural Centre have take part in the restocking of the River Nalón in Asturias. The infant and primary school children released 5,000 brown trout in the main channel of the river near to El Condado. The activity was organised by the River Nalón Anglers and Friends Association, which has the support of the EDP Foundation.

Apart from releasing the fish, the students learnt about the characteristics of the specimens and the environmental importance of this type of fish-management actions in the rivers of Asturias. This initiative is part of the work of the Anglers’ Association and of the EDP Foundation to involve the students of all the towns and centres along the River Nalón valley in the restocking activities.

As the chairman of the River Nalón Anglers and Friends Association, Arturo Álvarez, explained, “we want the releasing of these fish to foster respect, improvement and recovery of our environment, with a special emphasis on the river courses and the fish life to be found there".

The released juveniles are the result of a full cycle of spawning, hatching and raising, using the own breeding stock of the centre that the Association has in Pola de Laviana. The whole process is supervised by the Regional Ministry for Rural Development and Natural Resources.

This activity marks the end of the Association’s restocking campaign in the 2017 season, when it bred and restocked the River Nalón and its tributaries with 200,000 juveniles.

This initiative consolidates the close partnership dating back over fifteen years between the River Nalón Anglers and Friends Association and the EDP Foundation. The Foundation’s commitment to fish restocking is being spread to other rivers of Asturias, with the backing of the Royal Asturian River Angling Association.

In the middle-high course of the River Nalón, this partnership between the Association and the EDP Foundation has led to proven maintenance and sustained balance of brown trout population densities, which has managed to reserve the ongoing downward trend of trout populations.