Monday 14th July : Call in at the Freshwater Fisheries Laboratory, Faskally, to collect vials of preservative for taking tissue samples for genetic analysis this summer and also collect the electric-fishing gear from the electricians at Pitlochry where it has been getting checked and serviced. Spend the rest of the day at Pitlochry reading reports that Kenny has produced for the trout clubs - out of the reach of phones, so can concentrate.

Tuesday 15th July: In the afternoon out with Steven to re-sample sites on the Long Phillip Burn, near Selkirk, which were first sampled just after the flash flood there in 2003. That flood extensively damaged the burn, washing out the gravel completely from the steeper parts and then dumping it in piles on the flatter, so that there was no surface flow, the stream having to percolate through the piles. The channel had to be artificially re-created in many areas. Upstream of the Corbie Linn, where no migratory trout can reach, we found very few fish, even less than just after the flood - and all one year old parr, no fry at all, so no sign of spawning last Autumn. Below the linn, it was equally poor, which was more of a surprise as Sea-trout and Brown-trout from the river should be able to spawn right up to the linn. Checked the access from the Ettrick, which was perfectly open. Will have to look at this burn in more detail as it should have recovered, at least below the linn. Above the linn, the population is very fragile and could be finished off completely if further problems hit it. Interestingly, even though we found so few fish, we came across quite a fresh Otter spraint, probably from an animal taking the short, hill, rout from the Ettrick to the Tweed at Fairnilee.

Wednesday 16th July: Out with the whole team  in the afternoon to electric-fish the two sites we do on the Leader just below the office each year. There are various reasons for doing this - it serves as an annual refresher on electric-fishing technique and makes sure all remember to do things in the same way. It also gives us an annual check on the variabililty that can be expected at sampling sites. As usual, masses of juvenile salmon, though more Water Crowfoot than usual. A small Eel too, obviously one of this year's arrivals. It is in July that they reach these parts of the Tweed from the estuary.  

Thursday 17th July: With James up to Fisheries Research Services (FRS) at Montrose.  A couple of reasons for the visit. First, to compare the wetted area of the Gala Water we have worked out by direct measurement from aerial photographs with their measurement worked out from the Digital Terrain data of the Ordnance Survey - its always useful to compare results from two different methods. A considerable discrepancy, so their IT people are going to compare our data with theirs to see if the difference is just due to random variations or due to some systematic factor(s). As we need a good estimate of wetted area to work out just how many fish are needed to fully spawn the Gala, it is important for us to get this right - and as FRS are calculating wetted areas of all the Salmon rivers in Scotland, they also need to be confident of their technique. Also discussed "cohort analysis", a method we can probably use to get  a better handle on what the results of our fish counters mean. Essentially, if you can work out the ages of the fish being counted, you can see how many adults are produced by any one breeding season. Four, five and six year fish will all come from the same breeding season, so if you add their numbers together you can tell how many returning fish have come from the known number of spawning adults of that breeding season. If their total number is the same as the number of adults that produced them, then they are replacing themselves. If fewer come back, then replacement is failing and if more come back, then the stock is expanding. I think also we will be able to identify good and bad smolt years from this, which will all help explain what the ups and downs in the annual counts are due to. On the way back, find the Smokie shop in Arbroath and stock up.

Friday 18th July: Weekly staff meeting in the morning. Rest of the day catchin up on Admin. Kenny & Steven out electric-fishing. James & Sean preparing materials for Kelso show. A dead fish brought in from Ravenswood. Too old for much internal investigation, but no external signs of having being caught & released. Having bet Barry when sampling the Meggat for lamprey that there would be none - as there was no sediment at all I though I was quite safe -I am paying up the "substantial meal" tonight that I lost to him when there turned out to be quite good numbers present.