Thames Smolts stocking

[clwydman]

Have just read the T&S river reports and am a little concerned about a section in the River reports for the Mawddach and Wnion where it states that
'Smolts have been delivered to their rivers and self release ponds, 20,000 to the Thames, 6000 the Lledr and 6000 to the Conwy; and a further 25000 eggs online for the Thames'
Where have these 45000 smolts and eggs come from for the Thames salmon stocking? Have they come from salmon caught in the Thames, transported to North Wales and stripped etc. in which case fair enough. Or, have they as I suspect been taken from salmon stripped from other rivers in order to re-stock the Thames. If this is the case, this is an absolute disgrace!
Can anyone enlighten me on the situation before I really vent my anger. As an angler who fishes a once prosperous little river in North Wales I would be interested to know the origins of these salmon being stocked!

[wilbert]

I would suspect that the salmon smolts and eggs have come from brood stock from a different catchment which goes against the EA guidelines on stocking but then again they can bend the rules to suit themselves. I think they have been trying to restock the Thames for over 20 years without any real success and wasted something like 500K in the process, this money should have been spent on other rivers that had a real chance of recovery. Salmon in the Thames is just a PR exercise.