Monday 29th June: In the office all day, clearing up admin and getting ready for meetings over the next few days: One on Beavers, two on genetics and one on the Code of Good Practice in Fisheries Management.

Tuesday 30th June: Meeting on Beavers at the Faskally Freshwater Fisheries Laboratory.  In the early pm meet with the new RAFTS genetics staff who will be analysing the genetics samples we are taking. Spent the rest of the  afternoon making up Carlin tags for Sea-trout. After hearing of the success of Danish Sea-trout tagging work at the Cardiff Sea-trout conference in 2004, I don't use the standard method of attaching these tags, but instead make up their sort of attachment from stainless-steel wire, with an extra loop between wires and tag to allow it to dangle freely. These are the tags with which we get such high recapture rates for Grayling - and our Sea-trout caught in on the Danish coast in 2007 was also tagged in this way.

Wednesday 1st July: Another meeting at Faskally, of the working group producing a Code of Good Practice in Fisheries Management for the Freshwater Fisheries Forum. I did a draft of this for the Scottish IFM (Institute of Fisheries Management) and at the meeting it is decided to go on with this draft and its amendments, and that this will done by a team of three from the IFM, of which I'm one. Make more tags for the rest of the day.

Thursday 2nd July: A further meeting at Faskally, this time of the Steering Group for the salmon genetics work being undertaken by the fishery Trusts with Scottish Government core funding and their own contributions. Finish off my 100 Sea-trout tags afterwards.

Friday 3rd July: Joint monthly RTC / TF staff meeting in the morning. Spend the afternoon on admin and getting ready for tomorrow's netting. In the evening, go up the Oxnam Water as concerns expressed in the morning meeting about the reduction in water levels due to spray irrigation abstraction. It's clear that the river level downstream of the abstraction point has dropped by a couple of inches and that there have to be limits to  how much of this can be done. Take photos and notes.