FISHERMEN on the River Wye have shared "heart-breaking" footage of a number of dead salmon in the river.

Members of the Black Rock Lave Net Heritage Fishery have shared the videos of dead salmon at a number of locations along the river.

They say that during previous summers they have seen "the odd dead salmon in the river", but that this year has been "exceptional" for the issue "with several seen on every trip".

Fishery secretary Martin Morgan said: "It is truly heart-breaking to witness.

"The hot, dry spell has compounded existing issues on our rivers."

He said other factors include pollution and water abstraction.

"There seems to be no plan in place to deal with the fate of our salmon," he said.

South Wales Argus:

"They are literally cooking in the river pools, starved of oxygen.

"Surely these pools could be oxygenated by pumps or cooling systems set up on each major fishery pool or even the salmon netted and moved into holding tanks.

"Or will there just be a commentary on unfolding events.

"We certainly have not seen NRW (Natural Resources Wales) on our travels."

South Wales Argus:

Ben Wilson, principal fisheries advisor for NRW said: “As Wales continues to experience prolonged dry weather, our teams have been working hard to monitor and respond to incidents and reports of dry rivers, fish mortality and reduced dissolved oxygen (DO) in our rivers and lakes.  

“Given the current weather conditions, it is unfortunate, but not surprising that we are seeing some dead and distressed fish. This is one element of the stark situation we find ourselves in with the climate and nature emergencies.

“In some situations, like large pollution incidents, we might be able to attempt to rescue fish that are at risk, however this isn’t usually practical in extreme low flows and high temperatures.