Endangered eels released into rivers by pupils

(L-R) Pupils Jack, Jane, Eden, Sophia and Lucas have been taking care of 25 eels

Endangered European Eels are being released into rivers by school pupils across the West Country.

Schools in Gloucestershire and Somerset have been given tanks as part of a project to educate children about the species which is facing a "dramatic decline".

Flood defences like the Huntspill sluice are stopping millions of eels each year swimming through the Somerset Levels, the Sustainable Eel Group (SEG) said.

Pupils at Churchill School in Langford said they have “really enjoyed” feeding eels and releasing them back over the barrier at Tealham Moor.

Meanwhile, Stroud Valley Primary School kept eels in one of their classrooms for a month, before releasing them into the River Frome.

One pupil said: "It's nice because we've helped them survive.

"I'm kind of sad because they were really fun to have in the classroom."

About 60 Somerset schools were involved with the scheme.

“I like eels,” Sophia, a pupil at Churchill School, said. “I like learning about them and different facts about how they live.”

Lucas said: “It’s fun having them in the classroom. The one thing I found interesting about them is I never knew their heart was near their throat.”

Jack is not such a fan though. “They are slimy little snakes and I do not like them,” he said.

The European Eels are being released into the River Brue

Each school has been given a tank containing around 25 18-month-old eels, which are looked after by the children for three to six weeks.

Director of conservation operations at SEG, David Bunt, said: “This is more of an education project than anything else, but we are putting these eels back into the rivers above some of these barriers.

“So I’m sure many of them will go on to grow and live in the rivers, be part of the local habitat and hopefully some will become adults and go back to spawn to sea.”

Flood barriers blocking eels are a “huge problem," he added.

Andrew Kerr, Chairman of the SEG, says flood defences cause problems for eels

Andrew Kerr, who chairs the group, said: “We get something like 75 million glass eels each year in the spring coming up the Bristol Channel wanting to go onto the Somerset Levels and wanting to go on up the Severn.

"And the trouble is we just don’t let them in and what stops them is these great flood defence banks.

“We all want flood defence so nothing wrong with that, but the banks, the walls and the steel doors and these little creatures who have travelled 4,000 miles can’t get in.”

School pupils are helping to save the "critically endangered species"

In Gloucestershire, the project is being run between the Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust, Stroud District Council and the Cotswold Canals Connected (CCC).

Tony Chalk, the skills and learning co-ordinator for CCC, told BBC Radio Gloucestershire: "We have a critically endangered species and a scheme to try and keep them safe and help their population to grow again.

"The eels have started their life in the Sargasso Sea, about 4,000 miles away.

"They have taken two years drifting up on the gulf stream to reach the River Severn. From that point, we've been able to take some of them out and introduce them into schools.

"It's fantastic for the children, they've learnt so much from this."