Rescue operations are being carried out to save fish in Shropshire’s River Teme due to fears of plummeting water levels.

Brown trout, minnows, bull heads and young salmon were rescued from the river during an operation carried out yesterday by Environment Agency staff on a stretch of the river between Knighton and Leintwardine, near Ludlow.

Pictures have also appeared on social networking site Twitter showing sheep being able to cross the river due to the minimal water depth.

According to official figures on the Environment Agency website, water levels are now below the expected depth for the river at Leintwardine and Tenbury Wells and only just at acceptable levels in Knighton and Ludlow.

Jessica Campbell, Environment Agency spokes-man, said a similar rescue operation had taken place on the river in May and said there were “continuing issues” with water levels along the river.

Important

She said: “We have carried out a fish rescue operation because water levels are continuing to fall.

“The species of fish we have rescued include brown trout, minnows, bull heads and young salmon – obviously it is very important in the case of the salmon as they are juvenile fish.”

According to the Environment Agency website, at Leintwardine the river is four centimetres below acceptable levels at 0.28 metres, while at Tenbury Wells the river was 0.4 metres deep, three centimetres below the lowest typical level.

The depth of the river at Knighton yesterday was 0.54 metres – one centimetre above the lowest level deemed typical. At Ludlow the level was deemed acceptable at 0.93 metres, and at Burford figures were also in the typical range at 0.58 metres.

The river reached record depths of 5.22 metres in Ludlow during the floods of 2007, where a bridge on the neighbouring River Corve collapsed in swollen currents.

Carolyn Chesshire, who runs Lower Buckton Farm bed and breakfast and spotted the sheep crossing the river between Bucknell and Knighton on Thursday, said: “The river is very, very low in places and the Environment Agency has had to come out to move fish downstream.”