Monday 10th November: In the afternoon, at a special session at the SNH offices near Perth for RAFTS biologists to meet with Joe Starinchek, of the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service who is to be the keynote speaker at a Workshop on Invasive Alien species tomorrow. Good to get the chance to talk with him in a small meeting - his speciality is organising and servicing public awareness campaigns about the dangers of invasive species and alerting the public to how they can prevent releases and transfers. Whatever problems we have here, at least we haven't got to the state of the Florida Everglades, where alien, introduced, Pythons are now competing with Alligators to be the top predator.
Tuesday 11th November: An all day workshop on Invasive Alien species. I have to miss the first workshop session to go to the the AGM of the ASFB, also in Perth, to give a talk on Beavers and the misleading information that has been circulated in support of their introduction. The second Workshop session is on alien fish and techniques for their eradication using Rotenone (Derris Root), a traditional fish poison developed by native South Americans. It has a long history of use in Europe for fisheries management purposes, though this has become very restricted by regulations. In America, it is still widely used. We hear from the Environment Agency's expert of how he has used it to eradicate several populations of Topmouth Gudgeon (a Mongolian species that has begun to spread through England), including a recent first use in running water.
Wednesday 12th November: Back at Drygrange, catching up. Getting material ready for the December newsletter.
Thursday 13th November: More work for the newsletter. The Ettrick boatman in with some scales he was curious about. One fish, just 2 1/2 lbs was an old Springer, not a Grilse as might have been thought from its small size. There is an element of Spring Salmon that is very small ("Miniature Springers" as I call them) though they have spent two full years at sea. We actually radio-tracked one such a fish in the 1990's, and it ended up in the Range Cleuch, right at the very top of the Ettrick. Go down river at lunchtime to collect up scale packets, fish on the bank at both Rutherford and The Junction. Kenny on traps this week - reports that a female Sea-trout that had been in the Peebles trap but had not moved up from it after being released has been taken by an Otter.
Friday 14th October: Weekly staff meeting for me. James and Kenny out to the Gala fish ladder to put in the trap as over 100 fish up before 09.00. Out at lunchtime to collect up scales packets, check the Ettrick counter display in the viewing centre, good numbers going up and plenty showing at the cauld. Not much success with the Gala trap as the water clear and the fish put off going into the trap. Mostly Salmon, Sea-trout seem to have finished. Get some data entry done in the afternoon.