Churning out the surveys
August 24, 2009
Well despite an office day on Monday we managed to achieve our survey target for the week for the first time this summer!! Philip was in Monday for our weekly meeting to sort out a few things, there is a lot going on within the Rivers Trusts at the moment. I also had to order a new harness for our electro fishing back pack as our harness gave up the ghost on the Friday, it certainly gave us good usage.
Tuesday we got back to surveying and had a good day on the Hodder, finding salmon in new places we didn’t think they got to on Easington, and also found the limit of spawning for them on a couple of other becks. In the evening I met with John, Barrie, and Kevin from the Barrowford Anglers committee on Pendle Water to look at potential projects for improving juvenile trout numbers. We came up with several good ideas that we may try and undertake in the next year or so. It was a real pleasure to walk over some more of the upper Pendle catchment.
Wednesday was just another full day of surveys, but Thursday we went out around Clitheroe with Jason Pusley from the EA pollution team, it was a day of surveys but allowed us to investigate a few pollution sources. The highlight of the day, well for me at least, was finding a Brook Lamprey Juvenile on the upper part of Mearley above Clitheroe.
Friday was just back to me and Brad, and we undertook a couple of surveys on the upper Hodder above Stocks reservoir. These sites involved a lot of walking, a lot of rain and even more midges, who says I have the best job in the world!!
Feels like I’ve never been away!
August 17, 2009
Well after a week in Scotland – a week I should have used to recharge my batteries but the fishing was to good! - I’ve had a week back trying to get back on top of the surveys. Which hasn’t happened, perhaps I was optimistic in adding 100 sites to my target this year, but you’ve got to aim high.
I was in at the crack of dawn Monday as I knew there would be plenty of paper work on the desk when I got back. Which there was, 2 land drainage forms to sort, a problem with the website and sorting out our Signal Crayfish work for Tuesday Night. I did get this all cleared and then headed out to Twiston to get a few surveys done. These two becks are the Jewel’s in the Ribble Crown, coming the closest to being pristine that any beck does on the System. It is a real pleasure doing any work on them.
Tuesday we worked on the Whitendale and Dunsop, The Dunsop showed great fry populations, however the abstraction from the Whitendale is still evident, and I am told it ran completely dry once this summer. Roll on the 1st day of the new “hands off” flow agreement coming out of the Brennand and Whitendale abstraction reduction scheme. We also did a survey on a minuscule beck at Burholme Bridge, which was absolutely stuffed with both salmon and trout Fry, the importance of these small becks must NOT be overlooked.
After this I headed to Brian Dent’s to pick up our pumping equipment and home to grab my camping equipment before heading to the signal crayfish site. I met with Robin McKimm of Electro Fishing Services Ltd. we set up our site and then got ready to trial our equipment. Paul Bradley (The Whiteclaw Expert) and Emma Thompson (EA) came as observers and at 23:30 we switched on. Paul and Emma were both amazed by the Effect of the equipment and we then left the site over night before dewatering the site and hand picking crayfish the following day. We are still working through the data but although we hoped for a high kill % we didn’t achieve the top of the scale. However we did kill a good many, and of all age classes (very important) and we hope this will give us evidence to attract funding for the next round of equipment development.
Thursday we headed to Swanside and working from the top we discovered to great trout becks, I was a little confused why there were no salmon here. As we stopped for Lunch I discovered why. Yet another impassable man made weir. Speaking to a land owner it was for a corn mill that is now defunct. There really is an endless list of work for us to do. I hope that with support that one day we will actually at least get to see the end of the list! There was some concern that below this weir we did not find any salmon, where we had before, but the trout populations were excellent. We’re fairly certain this is the fault of the weir with a fish easement down stream of the site. With some work it will function much better, and hopefully we will get that done this year.
On a more positive note, that day we surveyed Eel beck – a tributary of Swanside – which has suffered from severe pollution problems in the past. Last year we surveyed above and below a small (but impassable) weir, above there was not a sign of life, no fish nor invertebrates. Below we saw a small trout and a few Stoneloach. The two members of the EA pollution team (Neil Finch and Jackie Monk) did a lot of work, visiting farms and working with them to sort out the pollution problems, the results are outstanding. Above the weir no fish, but it is invertebrate soup! Below the weir we Found 2 adult trout, 3 trout Parr and 12 trout fry, as well as Stoneloach and Stickle Back. After just one year of spawning since the EA work this is an incredible result, and shows what can be achieved. I fully expect this to be further improved in 2010! Well done the EA!
Weir on Eel Beck
And one of the new trout that have moved in since the improvement in Water Quality
On Friday we headed to Brennand and undertook a quantitative survey at lower Brennand farm, a stark contrast from Whitendale we had A grades for parr and fry both salmon and trout. We then headed back to the office to meet Dai Roberts from the Riverfly Partnership to get set up for Saturdays Anglers monitoring initiative training day.
Saturday went really well with another 10 volunteers fully trained ready and raring to go! Thank you to all of you who attended, braving the fantastic weather we had, and I’m sure this will add to the information and presence we have on the river bank. All good stuff for the state of our river.
Oh and we have started getting a few of our Catch and Release Badges out now, so hope you are all ready to send in the form once you’ve caught and returned a salmon! We will be sending the badges out as soon as we get the forms, NOT at the end of the season, so get ‘em in!
Dave Wilmot with one of the first few C&R badges, given after releasing a 9lb plus salmon
Environment Agency news- Environment Agency moves to stop rivers running dry
- Woman rescued as car is swept away by floods
- Environment Agency tracks alien invaders
- Unwanted Christmas trees provide festive flood defences
- Queens green energy scheme nears completion
- Case for change: Drought to be commonplace by 2050s
- New taskforce will tackle illegal waste sites that blight communities
- Environment Agency moves to manage scarce water supplies across Eastern England
- Survey reveals people would save pets over gadgets in a flood
- Communities to see the future of their changing coast