THOUSANDS of fish have been given a new home this month to help top up an improving Lancashire river.
The Environment Agency has bred 10,000 baby roach which have been added to a 10 mile stretch of the River Calder and its tributaries from Whalley to Burnley.
The fish have been reared at the Environment Agency's Leyland fish farm, which has recently reopened following a virus outbreak on some of its stocks in summer 2004.
Improvements have been made to prevent any future outbreak and new screening tests have been developed to detect infection at an early stage in fish considered for breeding.
The fish farm will be used to rear 500,000 fish for restocking rivers across the North West during the next two years.
Fish farm manager Grant Talbot said: "These are some of the best quality fish that have been produced in many years and have grown really well.
"It's great to see the fish farm up and running and ready to help improving rivers such as the Calder get even better and provide pleasure for anglers in the area."
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