WATER is supporting this year’s ‘Salmon Run’ along the Exe

A few places are still available on WATER’s relay team. Saturday 19th September

Having stunned the running world last March with John Mildmay-White’s 10 day, 400 mile ultramarathon, from the mouth of the Erme to Westminster, WATER is keeping up the pace and awareness of the plight of our rivers, by supporting the annual ‘Salmon Run’ along the river Exe.
Organised by Tidelines in partnership with Wild Running : Salmon Run this 43 mile route follows the migratory path of the Atlantic Salmon.

Each autumn they return to the spawning grounds where they started life in the upper reaches of the river Exe and it’s tributaries, having spent a few years at sea.

The Salmon Run salutes their epic journey with two parallel runs. One is a solo race for the coveted Salmon Run Trophy. The other follows the same route, but is a team-based relay where each team runs one of eleven sections of the route. At the end of each section they hand the baton (designed as a fabric replica salmon called Samantha) to the next team who take it on up the Exe, section by section, to the finish line on a major spawning tributary, the river Barle at Dulverton. It’s a great example of community teams working together, a principle that is a cornerstone of the way WATER works to restore water quality and habitat across the catchment of the river Erme.

WATER still has a few places open on its ten runner relay team. Contact johnmw@ermeriver.org The team will start their 6 mile section at Exeter Quay and run this stretch together.

What the salmon are up against

Migratory Atlantic salmon are a rapidly disappearing species having declined by 75% since the 70s. They are now classified as endangered. As an environmental charity for the River Erme, once well known for it’s migratory salmon and sea trout, WATER is all too aware of the many battles these magnificent creatures must face. Climate change has huge implications such as rising sea and river temperatures, big fluctuations in river flow rates, from heavy winter rains, making the rivers flashy, to slow running shallow flows in summer drought conditions. Barriers to upstream movement, invasive species like Signal Crayfish, pollution from field run-off and sewage spills as well as over-fishing and the impact of industrial fishing and fish farms at sea are just some of the challenges the Salmon have to overcome. . . as if the journey itself was not exhausting enough.
WATER is proud to be supporting The Salmon Run on a sister moorland river like the Exe.