Monday 16th March: Back to work on the budget for the application for European funds to work on North Sea Sea-trout. Have to produce six-montly estimates of expenditure. Spend virtually the whole day on this.

Tuesday 17th March: Euro budget sent back - I haven't done it in the correct format. Have to start again - spend whole day and part of the evening on it.

Wednesday 18th March: To Perth, for a meeting of the group producing a Code of Good Practice for Fisheries Management as part of the Strategic Framework for Freshwater Fisheries in Scotland. Get back to the office in the early afternoon to find that I haven't done the Euro budget quite right yet and further alterations needed. Spend the rest of the day on it and send it off again. In the evening to Duns, to a meeting of the Whiteadder fisheries owners  to talk about useful things to do for the river.

Thursday 19th March: Out with Kenny to get the various smolt traps into operation, make small repairs etc. We'll be starting them on Monday. James and Barry out crayfish trapping.

Friday 20th March: A special weekly staff meeting with "highheidyins" from Pentland House sitting in to observe fisheries management on Tweed in action.  In the afternoon trying to find out what exactly the fish health examination system in England actually is. We've recently had applications to stock with fish from English fish farms but all the certification we are given is a parasitological examination - nothing on any bacteriology or virology. They tell us that this is all they have - but there must be monitoring of notifiable diseases as well. Eventually find out that the parasitological investigation is required by the EA under their stocking consent scheme (which is why the farms send us these) but that there is the same two yearly sampling for notifiable diseases carried out by the Fish Health Inspectorate (FHI) in England as in Scotland and the result are notified to the farms. The difference is that the EA does not generally require to see these FHI results for stocking consents -but our policy is that we have to have such certification. So, we now know we can get certification on notifiable diseases from English fish farms - but a real struggle to sort this out.