Xmas is just round the corner
December 9, 2009
(Wrote this Tuesday and forgot to post it my apologies!!) With Xmas fast ajecpproaching for most it seems that things begin to wind down, I say most, not us, and certainly not my other half! We would normally have expected to see fish spawning in earnest by now, that said looking back through our diaries from last year it was the 8th of December (appropriately today) that we saw our first spawning fish on the Ribble. I apologise for the delayed blogging this week, but as soon as I got in yesterday Philip was in and then at 10:00 I went to do a walk over on Park Brook with Grant Talbot from the EA.
But back to last week first! Philip came in for the usual Monday morning session, which was quite different from the norm as both Stephen and I were on top of things so there was no big to do list coming out of the meeting, just what is sat on my desk – a rather daunting list too! Chris Heap popped into drop off some more of the Ribble Valley books by Malcolm Greenhalsh(we still have plenty available at £17.99 or £21.50 including postage). After a brew and a catch up Stephen and I were on with the usual Land drainage consent works for our fish passes next year, and grant apps. In the afternoon we headed to Eel beck on Swanside the location of one of our fish passage projects next year. The plan has changed twice for this one. An easement, then a pass, no complete removal. Removal is always the preferred option and sometimes this is forgotten. In this case we thought the land owner would want to keep the historic hydro-electric wheel. However we were wrong and getting that “lump of concrete” out of my garden was the happy result. This is a major bonus, gravel will be redistributed along the downstream channel and scouring and washout will be reduced downstream, not to mentioned the ease of movement upstream and additional habitat. This is a great sea trout/brown trout beck and will see many extra fish in the river, it should also see more eels, bullhead, and stoneloach. All of which are restoring a natural ecosystem, so the land owner could well start to see otters, king fishers and other species upstream of the weir.
Tuesday was quite productive, more work on other fish passage projects. The construction of the A59 has left three becks impassable to fish migration. The bridges (in truth they are more like culverts) are stepped wide and long, there is no depth of water so the fish can’t leap the steps. Unfortunately removing the A59 is not an option, so we are looking at installing hard would timber “weir” that are only 8-10 inches high. Carefulpositioning will mean there is depth for leaping and the fish can move upstream to spawn. Chatting to Lancashire County Council Highways, was productive and positive so we hope to be able to do this project next year. In the afternoon we were in Whalley primary school to install the latest and final Trout in the classroom tank for the year, we were almost finished when we realised we were short four pipe connectors!
Wednesday we worked on the paperwork of our projects for the most part. But the arrival of the EA’s electro fishing data from the Hodder meant I had a nice distraction as I spent some time going through the results to compare to ours and look for problems. I also spoke to Stephanie Peay about our Crayfish vs fish impact paper, and the resulting conversation has left me with something to add to the todo list!
In the evening was the RFCA meeting. This is a great forum for all angling interests from the area to come together. All though our aims and objectives are not fisheries linked, fishermen stand to benefit the most from the work of the trust. And seemingly anglers seem to be the most ready to donate time and money to looking after the environment that they (and many others!) enjoy. We were presenting a project for 2010/2011 that the RFCA kindly offered to partly support financially. Many other matters were discussed, certainly more than I put down here, but anglers in this area should be pleased that there is another organisation trying to look after their interests.
Thursday we went down to Pendle primary school in Clitheroe to check their trout in the classroom tank, to discover it wasn’t ready yet!! So another couple of hours there and we had the tank set up, running and looking fit. Bring on those trout eggs. In the afternoon I worked on “Barrowford 3″ fish pass. There are three weir in the Barrowford area, the first two we now have consent for works and will begin ASAP next year. The 3rd is a lot more involved and is the trusts biggest project to date. We are having all manner of surveys and designs done, thank fully Stephens experience in the planning consent field means he’s doing the planning permission form, which means I get the other stuff including Health and Safety.
Friday we headed back to Whalley primary school to get the tank sorted which we quickly did, and then it was back to the Office. After a busy paperwork week, I decided to do something a bit more relaxing, reading about fish! I have been asked several times about graylingand how often I come across them in my surveys. In truth not once. This worried me, and many others, as grayling numbers have been observed by some anglers on the Hodder to have dropped, although they are catching a wide variety of sizes and age classes. Last year I contacted the Grayling Societyabout the apparent lack of grayling, and was sent a very comprehensive review of Grayling ecology, status and Management practice. I thought it was about time I got my head around this fish a bit more and so I read as much as I could in the afternoon. Very interesting stuff, and the answer to my riddle was in there. Although grayling spawn in a similar way to trout and salmon, but at a different time of year, there are also a few other significant differences. They don’t dig redds for one! The eggs are laid on the surface of the substrate, although during the spawning some are inadvertently buried but only to about 5cm. Secondly where they spawn is also different from trout and salmon, preferring deeper slower moving water rather than the riffles. And finally the juveniles also prefer deeper waters, which I don’t tend to survey, as our surveys are designed to monitor trout and salmon. So I need to do some thinking as to whether I can in corporate some other survey techniques to incorporate looking for grayling. One thing I would add is that because of this, there is no official monitoring of grayling, and grayling recruitment so catch returns are essential. This info lead me back to the problems of migration for grayling, and specifically the Hodder flow gauging weir, the review on grayling ecology highlighted that they do migrate and barriers to grayling might not be barriers to trout and salmon. So I set about writing a brief for the requirement of the Hodder Flow gauging weir easement…watch this space.
Comments
Got something to say?
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