A SPECIAL tunnel is giving a helping hand to fish navigating a North Yorkshire river.

Environment Agency officials have built a stainless steel chamber to help fish get through the fish pass at Westwick Weir on the River Ouse, near Ripon.

The pass has opened the way to salmon and sea trout, but coarse fish struggle in times of low flow.

So the chamber will bolt on to the bottom of the stone pass during the spring, allowing all fish species to pass up and over the weir.

David Bamford, agency fisheries management officer, said: "We had hoped that the improvements carried out previously would benefit the migration of fish, but the numbers of salmon and sea trout using the fish pass so quickly after completion was beyond our expectations."

Updated: 11:21 Saturday, January 25, 2003