They are jumping for freedom in large volumes

Photographer captures trout’s great escape

By Richard Alleyne
Last Updated: 3:01pm GMT 11/12/2007

The owners of a trout farm were left baffled when dozens of their fish were going missing.

But then a wildlife photographer caught their extraordinary escape route on camera.

Swimming against the current, the trout make their escape from the farm

He pictured the trout making giant leaps out of their pond straight into the metal feed pipe three feet above the water level.

They then fought against the current for 30 feet until they reached the end of the eight inch wide pipe, which emerges underwater in a tributary of the River Itchen near Alresford, Hants.

The wildlife photographer Dennis Bright, 59, captured the amazing aerobatic fish earlier this week at the trout farm.

He said: “It was an incredible sight. Swimming against the current is instinctive for trout as they head up stream to spawn but they are doing a remarkable job getting through that pipe.

“They are jumping for freedom in large volumes but sadly I think their fate will be less than happy - there are otter, herons and many other predators feeding from the stream.

“I imagine the trout are quite stressed in the ponds because it is a free-for-all for predators. When birds come along the fish don’t stand a chance.”

A farm worker said: “It is remarkable how they manage to jump so high and through such a small pipe.

“We run a low intensity farm and like to let nature thrive so we don’t net our ponds. As a result we lose between 25 and 40 per cent of our stock to predators every year.

“To see us losing more fish through pipes that are designed to help them is a bit of a blow.

But to be honest, if I had otters, kingfishers and osprey eating my friends and family day and night I would be trying to escape too. Good luck to them.”

The Brown Trout belongs to the same family as the Atlantic salmon. It is a medium sized fish, growing to 20 kg or more in some localities although in many smaller rivers a mature weight of 1 kg (2 lb) or less is common.

They prefer cold (15.5-18.3ºC), well-oxygenated upland waters, especially large streams in mountainous areas. Their diet includes invertebrates from the streambed, small fish, frogs, and insects flying near the water’s surface.