The twaite shad was once a common sight in Britain’s waterways. A member of the herring family, the small silvery fish with a single dorsal fin and a forked tail was once so bountiful it was sold as food locally and abroad. But in recent times, it has been harder to spot and today the River Severn contains one of just four breeding populations in the UK.
“I used to live by the Severn estuary and I had never heard of it before – that is a sad state of affairs for a fish that used to travel up this river in its hundreds of thousands every year,” says Richard Harrison, programme manager for Unlocking the Severn (UTS).
The project, completed in 2022, has allowed the once abundant fish to return to its natural spawning grounds in the Severn for the first time in more than 180 years. A series of navigational weirs built in the mid-19th century had been preventing access to more than 150 miles of river until UTS built four fish passes – a series of imposing partially submerged concrete monoliths – into the weirs, giving hope to many of the Severn’s beleaguered fish species….
After the truth-shower 