Monday 12th April : On leave

Tuesday 13th April: Out with Niall and got two acoustic listening stations in on the middle river, then down to the estuary and got four mounted there, with the help of the RTC's boat and bailiffs. An interesting press release today, from the Angling Trust saying that they had lodged documents with the High Court as the start of the process for getting a Judicial Review of the Environment Agency's plans for the restoration and improvement of water bodies in England and Wales under the EU's Water Framework Directive (WFD). Essentially, under the WFD all the water bodies in the EU are being classified on a five level scale, with those falling into the lower three having to have plans made to improve them into the top two. However, water bodies which are too heavily modified for this to be possible at practicable cost can be designated as such and simply improved to be the best they can be under their circumstances. The Angling Trust's basic contention is that this exemption process has been utilised too freely by the EA, hence the application for a judicial review. This is, I think,  the first time that fisheries interests have formally challenged a central government agency over their execution of  policy and it will be of great interest to see what happens.

Wednesday 14th April:  Goosander and Cormorant count in the morning, then checking the Rutherford area for possible sites for acoustic listening stations. Put one in at Melrose - no smolts yet in the trap on the Yarrow, which is beginning to suggest that the run will be late this year. We've not trapped after such a long Winter before, so don't know if an effect is to be expected or not. A fascinating request in from researchers at the University of Southampton looking for collections of salmon scales made over the last 20 years or so. They are working on the microchemical analysis of scales as a means of finding where salmon feed at sea. This is based on the fact that in the ocean, carbon exists in two stable forms (isotopes) which vary  in the weight of their nuclei but otherwise have the same chemical properties. When planktonic plants at the ocean surface take Carbon in as they grow, the proportion of the two isotopes that they build into their bodies varies with water temperature. When these are eaten by plankton-feeding animals, the same proportions of the two isotopes get built into their bodies - and then into the bodies of the  predatory animals, such as salmon, that prey on them. This means that the proportion of Carbon isotopes found in body tissues reflects the water temperature at which they were produced. Scales grow as fish grow, the material that forms them being laid down in ever-larger plates, and as is well known, the patterns of faster growth in summer and slower in winter can be read from scales, giving the age and growth history of a fish.  What can be done now is that minute samples  can be chemically analysed from different points across a salmon scale - and the ratio of Carbon isotopes then show at what water temperature each bit of the scale was laid down. As ocean temperatures are now measured by satellites and can be mapped, the temperatures "read" from the scales can then be located on these maps to show where a fish has been feeding. A question that I get asked from time to time is whether fish from different rivers go to the same parts of the sea, to which I have had to reply that this was unknown. However, these researchers have found that the salmon from the three different rivers that they have examined so far, did go to different parts of the sea, which is an entirely new finding and has very important implications for understanding how different populations of salmon vary in strength over the years.  I reply to their request saying that we have been collecting scales since 1992 and would be very interested to contribute samples to their research, and say that we have some particular questions that their work could answer, such as whether the 3 Sea-winter salmon we have started to get in larger numbers have the same feeding grounds as 2 Sea-winter and whether the very small Grilse that are becoming commoner have the same feeding areas as larger Grilse.

Thursday 15th June: Out with Niall checking the Cornhill and Ladykirk areas for suitable sites for acoustic listening stations, much helped by local advice in each area on where the water depths and banks most suitable. Saw a good hatch of mayflies around midday, though no rise to make use of them - told that there were good Brown-trout in the area, but that these were probably feeding under water on the rising nymphs. Kenny on leave today, to go fishing, a fairly reliable sign that Spring is now here. James doing the traps, no smolts yet.

Friday 16th June: Weekly meeting in the morning, then out with Niall to put listening stations in around Cornhill and Ladykirk.