Throughout 2017 and 2018, the Wandle Trust in partnership with the Environment Agency and Zoological Society of London, adapted a number of weirs to aid eel and fish passage along the river.
Eels and migratory fish need access to upstream habitats during different stages of their life. Often they struggle to bypass man-made river obstructions like weirs, sluices and culverts, which act as barriers to their migration.
This project focused on easing passage for the critically endangered European eel and other migratory fish, in the downstream reaches of the River Wandle.
Six sites were selected across Wandsworth and Merton including:
- EDF weir at the Wandle Delta, Wandsworth
- Topps Tiles weir along Garratt Lane, Wandsworth
- Trewint Street weir, Wandsworth
- Archimedes Screw in Morden Hall Park, Merton
- Environment Agency weir in Ravensbury Park, Merton
- Watermeads Nature Reserve weir, Merton
Each of the sites were specially adapted through addition of eel tiles, fish passes and adjusting levels of sluices. At Morden Hall Park a monitoring station was also added allowing National Trust volunteers to record eel migration in the summer months, and contribute data to ZSL’s London-wide eel monitoring programme.
Two reports were also produced identifying additional measures to be implemented to help migratory fish at the Wandle Delta in Wandsworth, and the Watermeads weir in Merton. It is hoped these will inform further work! Read them by clicking the links in the ‘Resources and Downloads’ section to the right of this page.
This project was part of the wider Living Wandle Landscape Partnership Scheme, funded by the National Lottery through the Heritage Lottery Fund.
