If you would like to confirm your support for our work or you have any items or articles you would like to us to add to this site, please email highplains@fsmail.net

Link to Letter of introduction

Link to Consultation document

Link to Annex 1 and 2

Link to Annex 3

Link to Annex 4 to 6

Link to Appendices

Link to Questions

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/ever-tried-trout-fishing-at-manchester-airport-.html

Activity codes of conduct consultation starts

The Countryside Council For Wales (soon to be joined to the Environment Agency) are consulting on angling, wild swimming and canoeing. Please advise your club committee and urge them to respond. For your convenience you can print all three papers in one PDF by clicking on the link below.

Link to Combined papers

Natural resources Wales – Proposed arrangements for establishing and directing a new body for the management of Wales’ natural resources

This consultation seeks views on:

• Our overall proposals;
• Our proposals for implementing the legal changes required to establish the new body;
• Our ambitions for the new body and its overall purpose;
• Our proposed arrangements for customer and stakeholder engagement, including mechanisms for ensuring accountability and transparency in the work of the new body;
• Our proposals for the main functions and powers of the body;
• Our proposals for the status of the body and how it will be governed, including arrangements for an executive board and wider stakeholder engagement; and
• How we propose to take forward issues around cross-border governance and how the body will be fully accountable to Ministers.

How to respond

Please submit your comments by 02 May 2012, in any of the following ways:

Online form

Respond using the online form

Email

SEB@wales.gsi.gov.uk

Post

Carrie Moss
‘A Living Wales’ Programme Team
Department for Environment and Sustainable Development
Welsh Government
Cathays Park
CF10 3NQ

Additional information

If you have any queries on this consultation, please telephone: 029 2082 5527.

The information you send to us will be published in a summary of responses to this consultation. Normally the names and addresses (or part of them) of their authors are published along with the response. If you do not wish to be identified as the author of your response, please state this clearly when you write or e-mail.

Consultation documents

Consultation document

Just had the EA provisional catch return results through. These figures are provisional and based on 90% of the returns in the EA database, in addition no data quality checking has been done yet. See below

You will need to add the two sets of figs to get a total for Clwyd catchment. C&R rates looking very good indeed(about 75% for salmon and 85% for sea trout).

Well down on 2010 and it looks to have been a poor grilse year (repeated in other regions and countries), but generally a better MSW year so the average weights are up which means the egg deposition figures won’t be quite as bad as the numbers would suggest (but it’s a concern the grilse were scarce particularly as 2010 was a really good grilse year.

· Elwy Salmon 74 caught 56 released (2 to 16lb)

· Elwy Sea trout 267caught 233 released (14 oz to 6lb)

· Clwyd Salmon 29 caught 22 released (2.5 to 15lb)

· Clwyd Sea trout 458 caught 382 released (14oz to 10lb)

Actual results should be out next month.

Introduction

The Celtic Sea Trout Project (CSTP) is a European Union, Interreg IVA-funded, Ireland-Wales collaborative project on the status, distribution, genetics and ecology of sea trout around the Irish Sea. This note briefly outlines progress in 2011 for the many helpers and participants in angling clubs, river trusts and other organisations.  More detailed technical accounts will be available in due course.

Sampling

The CSTP is reliant upon effective field sampling to collect data and material such as scales from fish for the scientific analysis. For example, the genetics and microchemistry analysis, that will tell us about the mixing and distribution of stocks, requires a baseline of measurements to be made in all the principal rivers around the Irish Sea which are likely to contribute to sea trout stocks.  River sampling of juvenile trout for the genetics was the focus of the CSTP scientific team’s work in 2010 and was completed in 2011, using a large scale electro-fishing programme, taking samples from around 80 rivers.

Sampling in the sea

Marine sampling of sea trout is a key part of the project because it has not been done before in the Britain and Ireland. We want to know, amongst other things, where they go, what they feed on and how fast they grow. This is a challenging task but the CSTP team has made good progress. We have had to develop new methods for trawl sampling and have used them successfully in surveys from Dublin to the Solway coast, via the Isle of Man.  Shore sampling along the coasts of Wales, England and Scotland has proved more difficult; but the collections are still sparse and the marine sampling, including trawl sampling off Cardigan Bay and South Wales, will be intensified in 2012. Shore sampling in Ireland has yielded good results and this programme will be expanded in 2012.

Sampling in rivers

A major part of the sampling programme is the collection of scales for analysis of life histories, and growth rates.  For this purpose we need to know which rivers they came from and, apart from fish traps of which there are only three across the whole CSTP area (Tawe, Dee and Lune), the sampling of adults in rivers has to be done by angling.  This part of the sampling programme has required extensive communication with angler groups and distribution of thousands of sampling kits and scale envelopes.  Several talks on the CSTP were given during the winters of 2008/9, 2009/10 and 2010/11 to clubs and associations across Wales, Ireland, Scotland and England.  We aim to collect scales from at least 300 adult sea trout from each of the selected rivers over the project.

The scale sampling to date has had mixed fortunes, bearing in mind the target of 300 (Fig 1). The participation has been very good with over 1,600 anglers sending in 3974 sets, of which 2,322 came in 2011; so a big THANK YOU for all of those. Some rivers have done particularly well, such as the Border Esk, the Irish Dee, Argideen, Castletown and Currane, and on others some of the shortfall has been made up with other forms of sampling.  We will continue the sampling in 2012.

Sample processing and data analysis

Genetic analysis at University College Cork and Bangor University has been completed to establish a baseline of genetic variation and has shown remarkably strong structuring, with patterns that appear to reflect the ancient glacial history of the Irish Sea. This information will be used to assign marine sea trout to their regions or rivers of origin, in order to learn how they distribute themselves at sea.

Scales from the past two years are currently being read and analysed and are being used to derive the ages, spawning history and  growth rates of individual fish throughout their lives in rivers and sea. .The bulk of this time-consuming work will be done by summer 2012.  Other tasks on sea trout marine feeding, marine distribution modeling and fisheries analysis will be completed during 2012.   The other work includes dissecting organs and tissues from 2000+ adult fish, microchemical analysis of the inner ear bones, measuring and weighing 5,000+ fry, and scale reading and analysis of the large historical collection of scales that the CSTP has brought together. So, coupled with the year round sampling, the scientists are fully occupied.

Figure 1 Rivers, with more than 10 samples at Jan 2012, ranked by scale sample size.

Sampling by anglers in 2012

The prize draw for the champion scale samplers will be held in Carmarthen 21^st March 2013, but the CSTP needs the continued support of anglers in 2012. Scales can be taken easily once you have the basic kit which we provide. CSTP project team members are available to present talks to your club if required.  Contact us through the CSTP website.   THANK YOU FOR YOUR CONTINUING ASSISTANCE.

The Celtic Sea Trout Project (CSTP) is a European Union, Interreg IV-funded, Ireland-Wales collaborative project looking into the status, distribution, genetics and ecology of sea trout around the Irish Sea (http://www.celticseatrout.com/about/programme.htm). This note briefly outlines progress in 2010 for the many helpers and participants in angling clubs, river trusts and other organisations.  More detailed technical accounts will be available in due course.

Project management

Two fulltime Project Officers were appointed under contract in May 2010: one each in Ireland and Wales, to run the sampling and data handling tasks that support the rest of the CSTP.  Contractors were also appointed by August 2010 to undertake certain of the specialist tasks (fisheries analysis, life history analysis ad modelling, and hydrodynamic modeling).  Formal launch meetings were held in Wales and in Ireland.

Sampling

The CSTP is totally reliant upon effective field sampling to collect data and material from fish (tissues, gut contents, gonads scales etc) for the scientific analysis. For example, the genetics and microchemistry analysis, that will tell us about the mixing and distribution of stocks, requires a baseline of measurements to be made in all the principal rivers around the Irish Sea which are likely to contribute to sea trout stocks.  River sampling of juvenile trout for the genetics was the focus of the CSTP team’s work in 2010 and was 95% completed in full using a large scale electro-fishing programme, taking samples from around 80 rivers.  Some preliminary marine sampling was also carried out.

A major part of the sampling programme is the collection of scales for analysis of life histories, and growth rates in sea trout.  This is particularly difficult because, apart from fish traps, of which there are only three across the whole CSTP area, the sampling of adults in rivers has to be done by angling.  Moreover, scale reading and analysis are labour-intensive and time-consuming which limits the numbers of samples that can be dealt with.  Accordingly, we have restricted this part of the programme to 25-30 rivers, selected to cover the Irish Sea and where angling catch has historically been large enough to provide the samples. This part of the sampling programme has required extensive liaison with angler groups and distribution of sampling kits and scale envelopes.  Several talks on the CSTP were given during the winters of 2008/9 and 2009/10 to clubs and associations across Wales, Ireland, Scotland and England.   We aim to collect scales from at least 300 adult sea trout from each of the selected rivers over the two main years of sampling (angling seasons 2010 and 2011).  A feature of the scale sampling programme is the need to collect samples from the full size range of sea trout in these rivers to reflect the overall population structure.

The collection of scale samples in 2010 has not gone as well as the juvenile sampling and the returns to date fall well short of the indicative annual target of 150 fish /river (see Figure 1, which includes a small number of samples taken in 2009).  Only the Nith and Border Esk in UK and the Argideen, Castletown and Currane in Ireland reached the target levels and most others achieved less than 20%.  This was not due to fish shortage because catches were comparatively high last year. A major effort will be made in 2011 to raise awareness and to promote scale sampling by anglers, which will include a valuable incentive scheme.

Data analysis

Samples taken in last year’s surveys are being processed at the moment.  Genetic analysis at the Universities of Cork and Bangor is now in full swing, and a first look at the base line description should be possible in March 2011.  Scale data are being coupled with the extensive and catch statistics to describe variation in the complex life histories of sea trout and to develop analytical approaches that will enable the impacts of environmental pressures to be investigated.  Other tasks on marine feeding and distribution modeling and fisheries analysis will start in 2011.

Sampling by anglers in 2011

The CSTP needs the continued support of anglers to collect the required scale samples in 2011. Scales from sea trout of all sizes across the full angling season are requested and can be taken easily once you have the basic kit which we provide. CSTP project team members are available to present talks to your club if required.  Contact us through the CSTP website www.celticseatrout.com .

THANK YOU FOR YOUR ASSISTANCE.

Here are the figures:

With all best wishes from The Campaign Team.

Anglers may ONLY apply for an authorisation by registering on this website or by supplying their name, address and license number via the contact point for each river (as described on the registration page) to register on their behalf and by the appropriate closing date.

Registration is now closed

Dear all,

I hope you are having  a good sea trout season and that you might have found time for some scale sampling.  We have had a few back, so thank you to all who have sent in samples. As last year we are expecting that many of you will have samples that you’ll send in at the end of the season and that is  fine.

We are gradually processing previous samples and a couple of you (Alan and Dyfed) who turned up at the CSTP stand at the EA’s Brenig open day were able to see their scales mounted, projected and read, so there really is a result  from your efforts.  The meaning of it all will arrive as we accumulate the total samples, but each scale turns out to be interesting window on sea trout lives.

I have not fished in rivers this year, yet, but have had 16 sea trout in the sea at a “secret spot” on Anglesey where they seem to congregate. I use small Tobies and Dexter wedges; not pretty fishing, but most takes are 30-50m offshore and it gets the results for the project.  The CSTP marine sampling teams around the Irish Sea are gradually building up the marine samples, so we need the river-specific information from the anglers  too

I have never seen so many sea trout moving in coastal waters before and this year is looking quite good. I understand that in most rivers the catches are also at good levels. You may be able to confirm or comment on that?

All the more reason then to take advantage of the fish abundance to collect the samples, because it is much harder in lean years.  Can I urge you to collect when you can, please.  There is plenty of time yet this year, abut 50-60 % on average of the annual rod catch in N Wales rivers comes during August-October. So get out there, please!    I attach the angling incentive scheme and the sampling details which I think everyone will have had already. And please pass on any of this to anyone else you feel might be willing to help.

If you need more scale sampling kits or packets or want to return scales (NB no big rush – see above) please contact Dr Carys Davies (contact details on the attachment) who is coordinating the sampling in England and Wales.  Next winter we’ll sort out some feedback meetings for those that want them, let me know if you have specific meetings that might be appropriate.

Once again many thanks for what you’ve done so far and good luck in the last half of the season.

Best Wishes

Nigel

” You asked about the net at Dolgarrog unfortunately this was removed although
I think they reported it only to be told there would be a follow up within
48 hours – so they removed and destroyed the net as waiting for an EA
bailiff who turns up two days later is not a lot of use. ”

We believe a second net has since been discovered.

It is because of these incidents, and this is not an isolated example, that we are asking all anglers to use Campaign “REPORT AND INCIDENT” tab to report and record all such incidents. We know that many have lost faith in the 0800 80 70 60 number, but we ask you please still to use it and then go to the Campaign web site and confirm your report. That way, we as well as the Environment Agency get a copy and we are able to build a case for better enforcement. It is up to us to prove the case by recording incidents. You can also report “suspected” illegal activity, or warn of pending illegal activity if you hear about it. Every piece of information, no matter how small, helps. Great oaks etc…

PLEASE HELP US TO HELP!!!