Last updated at 13:19, Friday, 15 August 2008

THE life cycle of the Atlantic salmon is one of the great mysteries of the natural world.

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And this most fascinating of creatures provides the centrepoint of the newest attraction on the Kielder tourism trail, the Kielder Salmon Centre.

How a tiny fish can dodge a thousand predators, slip through the toxic soup of a river estuary, and then spend four or five years in the storm-riven Atlantic before somehow finding its way back to the river of its birth to spawn, has had scientists scratching their heads for generations.

The fact that it doesn’t eat when it returns to the river, and yet can be caught by a wily angler offering it a collection of fur and feathers on a hook, adds to the mystique.

There has been a salmon hatchery at Kielder ever since the early days of Kielder Water.

The upper North Tyne is an important spawning ground for the king of fish, and the then National Rivers Authority’s plans would have cut the fish off from their nuptial couches.

The options were to incorporate a fish ladder into the dam, so that the salmon could climb through a series of chambers to reach the reservoir, and then find their spawning grounds, known as redds.

The alternative was to capture the salmon as they congregated below the dam, strip them of their eggs and semen, and artificially rear the ova in a specially controlled environment.

The latter option was taken, and the Kielder Hatchery has proved an outstanding success story.

It has raised over 10 million young salmon over the last 30 years, which now populate the entire Tyne system, but they have also been used to repopulate dead industrial rivers such as the Trent in the Midlands.

The hatchery itself has now been reborn as Kielder Salmon Centre and on Friday it was officially opened as one the UK’s most successful wildlife breeding centres.

And it’s not only salmon which are being produced from the Environment Agency-run hatchery.

The centre has also introduced new freshwater pearl mussel breeding beds to help save one of the UK’s most endangered species.

Once common in the North Tyne, the mussels have all but disappeared in recent years, other than as ashtray shells.

The facility also produces juvenile Ennerdale charr, a unique species of fish native to the Lake District.

The Kielder Salmon Centre will be open to the public and student groups free of charge, seven days a week.

Environment Agency fisheries team leader Jim Heslop said: “The revamped Kielder Salmon Centre provides visitors with a great opportunity to learn about freshwater ecosystems, and the extraordinary life cycle of species like salmon and freshwater pearl mussels.

“We hope the conservation work carried out by the Environment Agency will inspire people to get more involved with their local environment, whether it is through fishing, conservation work or simply getting out there and enjoying it.”

The centre was officially opened by director of the Kielder Partnership, Elisabeth Rowark, who said: “The new visitor centre is yet another fantastic attraction that Kielder Water and Forest Park has to offer its visitors all year round.

“On behalf of the Kielder Partnership I’d like to welcome our newest member, the Environment Agency, which works hard to ensure the Tyne is the best salmon river in England.

“Kielder Salmon Centre will provide our visitors with a great source of information and add an exciting new element to the Kielder experience.”

First published at 13:32, Thursday, 14 August 2008
Published by http://www.hexhamcourant.co.uk