Argyll Fisheries Trust News

November and December

2011-12-14T11:16:00.003Z

Ah, the winter months. Hurricane winds, hail stones the size of golf balls, thunder and lightening, horizontal rain and trees blocking roads. Definitely a time for the office and report writing. With the field work completed on the majority of projects this year, we're now getting stuck into the analysis and reporting in the warm office.

There are still a couple of projects that require fieldwork, such as the Loch Fyne Sea Lice Dispersal project; this involves wading thigh deep from the shore dragging a plankton net behind us and losing the feeling in our hands. The things we do for the fish! We also have some fieldwork to do for the EU Invasive Weeds project, but thankfully we can wear gloves for that one.

We're also waiting for a break in the weather to go out and have a look for signs of salmon and trout spawning, but we really need a bit of frost for that to clear the water up.

That is all.

October News

2011-11-01T13:36:00.005Z

Well, we've pretty much managed to complete our electrofishing fieldwork for this year, which given the amount of rain we've had was a herculean effort. Danny well and truly has his feet under the table, however we have to say a sad farewell to Hazel Stanworth. Hazel has been a seasonal fieldworker with us for the last 4 years, and in addition to being a hard worker, lit up the trust with her bubbly personality and cheery disposition. The Environment Agency have got a good 'un there, and Hazel will be sorely missed. Good luck, Haze!

Alan did some filming for a BBC Alba show, Turus a Bhradain, about fisheries in Argyll. The programme should be aired in Spring 2012, so keep an eye out for it. Especially as Alan caught a fish!

Craig also took part in BBC Radio Scotland's Big Debate in Inveraray in October. As well as questions about fisheries and aquaculture, other topics included energy prices, gay marriage and benefit payments, about which Craig new virtually nothing!

AFT had it's AGM in October, which despite a poor attendance still managed to generate lively discussions, not least about the Sustainable Inshore Fisheries Trust's campaign to reinvigorate fisheries in the Firth of Clyde. Thanks to Bob Younger and Charles Miller for coming to our AGM! See more about SIFT's campaign at www.sift-uk.org/.

That is all.

September News

2011-09-08T15:43:00.003+01:00

Congratulations and welcome to Daniel Brazier, who is our new Assistant Fisheries Biologist. Danny hails from Orkney, so even Argyll will seem like a bustling metropolis to him. Danny started with us on Monday 5th September and we're sure he'll fit in with the team well. A short bio and photo will appear on the website soon.

Argyll Fisheries Trust was in the Oban Times recently promoting our project that is controlling invasive non-native plants around Loch Awe and her rivers. We've just approved a new contract for control of Rhododendron ponticum on the west side of Loch Awe, so expect to see contractors out doing the business there soon. Apologies for the drowned-rat look in the photo, but it was very wet that day.

Speaking of which, the weather has been frustrating our fieldwork efforts recently. We've had very heavy rain which has left us office bound and means that our fieldwork is starting to stack up. The rains may have been good news for all the anglers in Argyll, but ain't so good for us poor biologists.

Argyll Fisheries Trust would like to say a big thank you to Awards for All Scotland, who gave us a grant of £10,000 for the purchase of new electrofishing equipment. Our old kit was spending more time in the repair shop than in the field, so the new kit is a very welcome addition. Now, if only the rain would stop for a while we might be able to use it...

That is all.

Fisheries Biologist Vacancy - Argyll Fisheries Trust - July 2011

2011-06-27T16:25:00.003+01:00

THIS POST HAS NOW BEEN FILLED - 22nd August

Fisheries Biologist

Salary from £19-24k, Subject to Experience

The Argyll Fisheries Trust seeks a biologist to fill a post within AFT to meet its objectives towards the sustainability of wild freshwater fish and their habitats in Argyll.

Based at the AFT office at Inveraray, the person will be part of a team developing programmes to restore and support wild fish populations underpinned by monitoring and research. The AFT undertakes a wide range of projects in partnership with stakeholders, conservation bodies and local communities where people/communications skills will be required. An understanding of the issues surrounding wild salmon and sea trout is essential, and a familiarity of aquaculture and forestry practices would be an advantage.

AFT is looking for an individual with a degree is a scientific or environmental discipline who has practical experience working in the field. The successful candidate for the post will be enthusiastic, aspires to develop, is self motivated, and able to work well within a team.

Ideally the applicant should also be qualified to SFCC team leader standards in electro fishing and is familiar with GIS mapping programmes. A full driving licence is essential.

The Argyll Fisheries Trust is a charitable company limited by guarantee. Set up in 1996 it has a track record of implementing science-based management of fish populations and fisheries. The AFT biologist team reports to an active and involved Board of Directors.

A full job description is available from Craig MacIntyre, Manager AFT, Cherry Park, Inveraray, Argyll, PA32 8XE; Tel 01499 302322; e-mail: cm@argyllfisheriestrust.co.uk.

Applications with a CV (max 2 pages) and a covering letter should be at the above address by July 22^nd.

Latest news

2011-06-23T15:18:00.004+01:00

Hi. Lots of exciting things going on at the Trust this year (well, exciting to us). We're finishing off the reports for last year's projects on Mull and the Lower Firth of Lorn, which will be available through this website shortly(ish).

Our big projects for this year are habitat surveys and electrofishing in the rivers around Loch Fyne, and we'll also be runninng Rivers in the Classroom alongside the surveys in local schools. Still in Loch Fyne, we're part of a project looking at the distribution of sea lice in the loch, which will help us understand what happens to salmon and sea trout when they leave the rivers.

In the Awe catchment, we're doing a lot of work to understand the many factors that affect wild salmon and trout populations. Also, work starts next month on dealing with some of the invasive non-native plants that blight the river and loch areas. More on that next month.

At the moment, we're surveying for sea trout in coastal waters, so if you see a red truck towing a boat called "Deirdre", give us a beep.

Finally, our assistant biologist, Tony, is deserting us next week for pastures new. His position will be advertised on this site shortly, so if you fancy a job that involves working in some of the most beautiful landscapes in the UK, get your CVs dusted down and updated.

Good luck, Tony! (splitter)

Work for 2010

2010-09-20T11:54:00.004+01:00

Hello, and welcome to the Argyll Fisheries Trust’s blog. It's been a while since we updated this page - that doesn't mean there hasn't been any news, just that we're always out there doing the good work.

This has been a busy year. AFT are engaged in a range of activities aimed at understanding the factors that affect migratory salmonids and improving their habitat.

Our projects for 2010 are:-

Lower Firth of Lorn Habitat Surveys – funded by Scottish Natural Heritage and Scottish & Southern Electric, this project is providing valuable information on the fish habitats of rivers of the Lower Firth of Lorn area.

Isle of Mull Rivers Project – funded by Scottish Natural Heritage and many of the fishery owners of Mull, we are collecting information on the juvenile fish populations and also on the fish habitats of the major rivers on Mull.

The Awe Catchment is the largest catchment in Argyll where much of our work is focused. Our projects for this year include identifying man-made barriers to fish migration in the rivers and burns, with a view to removing the barriers where practical (funded with thanks by Scottish Government, Loch Awe Improvement Association and Forsestry Commission Scotland); looking at the factors affecting the migration of smolts from the Awe to the sea (funded by Scottish Government and ADRIA); improving the aquatic habitat of the rivers of Eredine Forest; and removing invasive non-native plants from the whole of the Awe Catchment. For this last project, AFT were successful in getting a grant from the EU, worth around £215,000 over 5 years.

Our monitoring work for the Scottish Beaver Trial is now in year 3 out of 5, and we are continuing to gather valuable data on the fish populations of the reintroduction area.

Coastal sea trout post-smolt netting was carried out from May to July throughout Argyll. Generally, the picture was encouraging, with increasing numbers of sea trout caught. While the picture is improving, sea trout numbers are still drastically reduced on historic numbers, and AFT, in connection with Argyll District Salmon Fishery Board (ADSFB) have produced a sea trout conservation leaflet to publicise the plight of the sea trout. If you feel you can help by distributing the leaflet, then please contact Craig at the Trust and we get them out to you.

The Mull fish farm escapes project is investigating the effects on wild fish populations after many thousands of fish escaped from a freshwater fish farm on the island. This project is in year 1 of 4 and no results have been obtained to date.

Other Work

We are using income from the ADSFB and River Improvement Associations to develop Fishery Management Plans for many catchments. We are continuing our monitoring and investigation work, stock assessments, analysis of catch returns and habitat improvements. We also continue to represent wild fishery interests at national, regional and local levels.

2008-02-08T16:28:00.000Z

The Scottish Beaver Trial 2007 / 2008

The proposed trial re-introduction of the European beaver (Castor fiber) to Knapdale by the Scottish Wildlife Trust (SWT) and the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS) as gone through a two month public consultation process. This consultation found around 70% of respondents to be in favour of the proposed trial and an application has now been made to the Scottish government to release up to 20 beavers to the area.

Background

The European or Eurasian beaver is a large, semi-aquatic rodent which was hunted to extinction in Britain in the 16th century. The European beaver is a ‘keystone’ species and its re-introduction is thought to be beneficial to a wide range of species. The European beaver inhabits riparian broadleaved woodland bordering freshwater and is totally herbivorous, and will feed on a wide verity of herbaceous and woody species.
Unlike its American counterpart European Beavers favor burrowing in to banks as opposed to building lodges. Where ground is unsuitable for burrowing the European beaver will build lodges or use a combination of both burrow and lodge. European Beavers will dam streams when conditions are unfavorable to maintain water levels and create large areas of slow moving water. Beavers will also construct canals which allow them to travel away from the main body of water.

The Argyll Fisheries Trust’s comments to the Scottish Wildlife Trust

The AFT is supportive of a vision of attaining healthy aquatic wildlife communities in Argyll, which historically may have included European Beaver. The proposed trial re-introduction of the beaver raises some major concerns for freshwater fish populations, particularly at a time when native Atlantic salmon, sea trout and European eel populations are at low abundance relative to known records in Argyll. Atlantic salmon and River lamprey are afforded protection under the European habitats Directive and both Atlantic salmon and brown trout (including the migratory form, the sea trout) and are also noted as important species in the Argyll & Bute Local Biodiversity Action Plan. On this basis, we urge that the concerns of fishery management groups over the proposed trial are given due consideration.

Our concerns are both specific to the proposed trial release site, which has limited potential for interaction with migratory fish, which may not provide a representative view of the potential impact on fish populations upon which to assess the proposed trial and also the further distribution of beaver outside this site both during and post the trial period. The main reasons for our concerns are based on two characteristics of beaver behaviour;

Distribution of salmonid and other native fish

Research from Sweden, Norway and Baltic states indicate that beaver are likely to construct dams in certain habitat types, which have a known potential to restrict salmon, trout, eel and lamprey distribution, restricting access to habitats they require to complete their life-cycles. For example, in the Lithuanian National Report of the 31st May 2006 to the Baltic Sea Trout workshop, “Beaver activity” was listed as a threat to Sea trout stocks in four rivers. This proven potential to reduce the productivity of native fish populations and associated fisheries will require both strict supervision of the beaver during the trial and significant resources employed to predict likely beaver colonisation patterns and management of post-trial colonisation of new habitats. This management is likely to require considerable resources, which are not currently available within the fishery management sector.

Changes in riverine habitat characteristics

While the beaver is understood to ‘manage’ riparian woodland habitats, which may be beneficial to a range of aquatic wildlife, there is also potential for significant changes in the distribution and abundance of habitats suitable for salmonid and other native fish recruitment. Construction of dams are understood to increase the abundance of open and relatively slow flowing deep water habitats and decrease the availability of fast flowing shallow water habitats that are suitable for salmonid fish spawning and early juvenile fish life-stages. Significant changes in the distribution of habitats favourable to early life-stages of salmonid fish have potential to reduce productivity of salmon and trout populations and possibly promote habitat characteristics preferred by non-native species, such as minnow and other coarse fish species. While the increased amount of deeper water produced in smaller streams by Beaver dams is often stated to be an advantage in that adult trout can inhabit such ponds, this is of no benefit to migratory Sea-trout populations as the resident “Brown-trout” element of such populations is largely (and in some cases, wholly) male. In such populations it is much more important that the females from the sea get as far up their spawning burns as quickly and easily as possible compared to providing relatively few resident, male brown-trout with some deeper water in which to live.

The longer-term potential for beaver to change the distribution and productivity of a number of native fish species (and related fisheries) requires further research and monitoring to be undertaken at a local (Argyll) and national level. Experience from Bavaria is that Beaver are not much limited by lack of their prime habitat, as the effect of their dam-building is to modify sub-prime habitat to suit their needs - even agricultural drainage ditches have been utilised by Beaver there. Beaver released into the wild are therefore, on Bavarian experience, likely to spread widely throughout Scotland, colonising a very wide range of watercourses and living in urban as well as rural areas. Given the current modelling information of beaver distribution in Scotland predicts relatively low numbers of families to become established, it will be necessary to re-evaluate this information in light of what has been experienced in other countries where re-introductions have taken place.

As the beaver’s effects on the physical form and hydrology of streams is so profound, their introduction is likely to have very significant impacts on fisheries (and flood prevention) throughout the country, so very great care needs to be taken in setting up and assessing any trial. Improved modelling techniques will be required to provide a realistic estimate of the resources required to manage beaver populations in relation to maintaining productive fisheries.

It should also be noted that there is evidence from Estonia is that the ponding back of water behind Beaver dams would eliminate any populations of Pearl Mussel (Margaratifera margaratifera) covered by such deepened water. Given the fragile conservation status of this iconic Scottish freshwater species the effect of Beaver ponds on them should be given particular attention.

Therefore, we recommend that within the proposed trial period there are sufficient resources made available by the project at a local and national level to fully investigate the likely distribution of beaver at these scales and predict likely affects on freshwater habitats and associated fish populations. A list of questions to be answered by such a trial can be provided by RAFTS (Rivers and Fisheries Trusts of Scotland). It will also be necessary for project managers to provide the criteria upon which the trial will be assessed prior to introduction so that all factors are given fair consideration at the end of the trial period. Further to this, it will be important to provide a realistic guide to the likely management activities and their associated costs required to avoid significant impact on migratory fish and other aquatic wildlife before the end of the project.

Further details on the re-introduction of the European beaver and a copy of the consultation report can be found at http://www.swt.org.uk/about_us/beavercampaign.asp