What are these horses equipped with a harrow doing in the Touvre? An expert says everything about this spectacular operation

“Can you tell me what this funny trick was about? », asks us Florence, a Ruello resident out for a walk.

Franck Ramezi, president of the Approved Association for Fishing and Protection of the Aquatic Environment (AAPPMA) called Salmon Trout, lights his lantern. And ours.

Horses were used to drain the riverbed, plowing it as it were, in order to facilitate the reproduction of fish. The harrow which scrapes the ground releases the silt from the gravel, eliminates the deposits lining the bottom, aerates, releases the accumulated gases and reveals the small buried stones. At spawning time (the time of fish reproduction), the trout gather in the spawning grounds, and the females, using their fins, build small piles of gravel where they come to lay eggs and on which the males deposit their milt.

The drought of recent years has created abnormal sediment deposits

“Even if it has rained a lot in recent months, the drought of recent years has created abnormal sediment deposits while trout need clean gravel to spawn,” explains Franck Ramezi.

To describe the operation, specialists say that they are “unclogging the brownfish spawning grounds”. The use of horses and harrows helps rebuild the fish population decimated by saprolegniosis and predation by the great cormorant. “This type of operation should be carried out two or three times every fall,” adds Franck Ramezi. The Salmon Trout was supported by the Le Trait Charentais association.

Between the members of the fishing association, the volunteers of the Trait Charentais, the guides, there were around thirty people on Sunday, alongside six mobilized horses, upstream of the no-kill Camoche course.