1 August 2008

PARIS - A healthy-looking sea trout fished out of the Seine just outside Paris last weekend is proof of an improved cleanliness of the river, officials said Thursday.

"It's the first time this species has been identified just outside Paris," said the authority in charge of cleaning up the river, SIAAP.

The capture of a sea trout, a migratory fish "sensitive and demanding about the quality of the water" in which it swims, underlines the continuing improvement in the waters of the Seine, SIAAP added in a statement.

It swam upstream from the Seine estuary on the Atlantic ocean through a great number of locks and barriers, bringing to 32 the number of fish species in the Seine, in comparison to only three in 1970.

[AFP / Expatica]