Monday 13th August : Out electric-fishing on the Leet. Mondays are not usually fieldwork days, but we are trying to catch up after the cancellations caused by rain. This is Fry Index electric-fishing, lots of sites sampled for three minutes on riffles. We have done this for ten years on Ettrick and Yarrow, to generate data on Fry abundance to relate back to numbers of adults passing through the Ettrick fish counter but this year we are beginning to extend it to the whole catchment. The great advantage of this approach is that it really covers the whole catchment in hundreds of sites and gives the big picture, unlike the traditional sampling approach of doing a few very sites very intensively. While this gives accurate results, these can only be surely related to the sites themselves - it is not possible to do enough sites to this level of accuracy to cover the whole catchment. The Leet is the "problem" tributary, as its water quality and flow levels can be poor, but we find Trout at all but one of the sites we sample, and Salmon fry beyond The Hirsel, further upstream than, as far as I can remember, we have found them before. Similarly, I get the impression that Trout fry are now more widespread than they were.  Not in large numbers anywhere, but noticeably fat for their length. Back to the office for 4pm for a meeting with the Scottish Borders Council Biodiversity Officer to discuss planning regulations and biodiversity in regard of fish.

Tuesday 15th August : Down to Newcastle to meet with the local Environment Agency and a CEFAS officer about setting up a North Sea Sea-trout programme.  I heard about the developping Celtic Sea-trout programme when in Ireland in February and thought it would be a good idea to mirror it on the East coast. Having adapted the Celtic concept note and sent it round, found both the N.E. England E.A. and CEFAS interested and this was our first meeting to carry it forward.

Wednesday 16th August : Electric-fishing on the Till. Water a bit up but still practicable. As expected, masses of Salmon fry on the Breamish but surprised to find them well up the Hetton Burn, a small, rather sad, ditched & silted tributary of the middle Till. Equipment problems meant we couldn't complete the day's sites.

Thursday 17th August : Meeting at Pitlochry of a sub-group of RAFTS biologists on the progress and direction of a contract we all have with SEERAD on management plans, which seemed to make ground. Useful timing as well, as I was able to take the faulty electric-fishing equipment into Bells of Pitlochry, who do the servicing of such gear for the whole country.

Friday 18th August : Still at Pitlochry. In the library of the Freshwater Fisheries Lab. photocopy a dozen or so papers that Steven needs for the report on the temperatures of the Ettrick and Yarrow and then meet with Dr. Eric Verspoor to discuss a possible national Salmon genetics mapping of Scotland programme. Then a half day's leave.