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Tuesday 10 March 2009

Weir


What was hidden behind yesterday's gull?
The Salmon Leap at the Cutts on the river Bann. This rocky outcrop forms a natural weir across the river.
Salmon must negotiate this hurdle when they are returning from the ocean, to spawn in the rivers of their birth.

The weir is about a mile upstream from Coleraine. The river is tidal from the Atlantic Ocean up to this point - a distance of just over 5 miles, or around 9 kilometres.

2 comments:

~Cheryl said...

That makes me tired. I'm so glad I wasn't born a salmon!

Sam said...

I wouldn't like to be a salmon either - when they return to freshwater, they stop feeding. Some females succeed in returning to the sea, but the males die!