As well as migration patterns, The Tweed Foundation's part in the study also includes tracking smolts in Tweed downriver to see how many successfully reach the sea and whether the fates of those that do not can be identified. Fresh adults coming upriver will also be tracked to see how many of those are lost to causes other than angling. Both tracking programmes will be carried out as part of a PhD study based at Durham University and supervised by Dr Martyn Lucas, who has wide experience in fish tracking.
Niall Gauld started his PhD in January and for the first two years of the study, whilst the practical work is undertaken, he will be largely based on Tweed at the Foundation.
The Acoustic Tracking Equipment Arrives
It’s an exciting time for everyone involved
with the Living North Sea project as the first batch of equipment has arrived!
The new equipment, along with equipment borrowed from Durham University, will allow us to track Salmon and Sea-trout smolts this coming spring, along with adult Salmon and Sea-trout in the late summer.
There are three specialised pieces of
equipment used for the project: acoustic tags, acoustic monitoring receivers
and the manual tracking unit.
The acoustic tags are attached to fish and transmit
ultrasonic codes to the monitoring receivers which record when each fish passes
them. This will allow us to follow the fish as they progress downstream.
An acoustic tag
The
manual tracking unit
An acoustic monitoring receiver
If the fish is present between the two stations then we can monitor its movement, if it isn’t present between the two stations we can assume it has been taken by a predator.
Manual tracking unit with attached hydrophone 
We are looking forward to starting the tracking and we undoubtedly have months of hard work to come!
