Monday 15th January - On leave

Tuesday 16th January - Catching up with e-mails in the morning, then finalising the first draft of the stocking and fish movements policy for review before it goes to the Tweed Committee. That will be on the 5th February, and will be a bit of a race as the "January" Goosander and Cormorant count has also been fixed for the fifth - the Policy will be put last on the Agenda and I am going to have get my count section (Rutherford to Kelso) done more quickly than usual to make it to the meeting. Next  was drafting the RTC / TF response to an Executive consultation on changes to the legislation controlling / prohibiting the release of animals (& plants) into the wild. As usual, makes no distinction between fish species native to Scotland and those native to the south of England - and there are major differences (no carp species are native to Scotland for instance, but many are to the south) and have to point this out, yet again. There's a pretty serious lack of basic biogeographical knowledge in SEERAD when it comes to fish. The only light relief from all this keyboard tapping is a phone call from the RTC solicitors about a poaching case  in which I had identified scales taken from various bits of equipment as being Salmon and Sea-trout. It's been a good many years since I've done any forensic work for the baillifs and I'm still hoping for my day in court (CSI Melrose ? ). Up till now all my evidence has been accepted uncontested by the Defence in the cases I've been involved with. It's been easy stuff really - a net full of Canadian Pondweed and crawling with live Mayfly and Stonefly nymphs has pretty obviously not been in the sea and so on.

Wednesday 17th January : Most of the morning taken up with a meeting about undertaking a biological survey of a fishing beat for a new owner who wants to know what is where and what constraints there might be on changes. The main interests to be considered are the species for which the Tweed has been designated a European Special Area of Conservation : some Waterweeds, Lampreys, Salmon and Otters and these would all need to be checked on. In the afternoon, working on the draft fish movements policy again and the SE consultation on control of releases of animals to the wild, whose details get the more confusing the more you look at them.

Thursday 18th January : The weekly check on the trap near Peebles to keep it clear of debris - this has to be done all year, whether the trap is in use or not. In the afternoon, drew up an outline for the biological survey discussed yesterday and more work on the SE consultation. Also started a section for the RTC's Annual Report on the sizes of fish caught this year. We have put a lot of work into collecting and computerising angling catch records over the years and it is when questions like this arise that this proves its worth. In this case, we could (almost) instantly find out that there has been a consistent, long-term, trend towards smaller fish starting back in the 1940's and that the small fish noticed in the 2006 catches were part of this well-established trend and not a one-off event. It is always important in Fisheries Management to be able to distinguish long-term trends from short-term events and our collection of catch records lets us do this.

Friday 19th January : Usual weekly meeting in the morning followed by a long discussion on Health and Safety policies. In the afternoon, more work for the RTC annual report and the SE consultation.