 |
|||||||
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
||||||||
|
||||||||||
 |
||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||
|
Not published yet 2008 ANNUAL REPORT Last year the Tweed Foundation celebrated its 25th anniversary. There are few who would argue that it has been hugely influential in raising the bar in Scotland of fisheries research and management over that time, so that, so far as is possible, decisions are taken on all rivers now on the basis of knowledge and fact. Whilst the River Tweed Commission works closely with The Foundation in delivering the high level of fisheries management that is required for a river of Tweed’s status it does have has a legacy locally, I believe largely unfair, of being solely a policing organisation which has taken decisions in the past that have not always been popular. The Foundation, even if funded and managed by pretty much the same people, has an almost universal appeal to those who respect the River which has served not only its own purposes but has brought together all interested parties on Tweed. Nothing can be achieved without money, and the support that has come the Foundation’s way over those 25 years has allowed it to weather all financial storms, and we are indebted to all our Benefactors, members and Tweed proprietors for that. The recent financial tsunami has been the equivalent of a 30 ft river flood, but we are reasonably well placed despite the inevitable (hopefully temporary) decline in our reserves. The original Trust Deed drawn up in 1983 is no longer broad enough to encompass all our obviously charitable activities (such as Tweedstart and our boats for disabled anglers), and the Trustees believe that converting to a (charitable) company limited by guarantee is also more appropriate. These changes are in progress and will, we hope, see the Foundation through the next 25 years. I recommend the following short articles as a good read to understand the range of work that the Foundation continues to work on, and you can of course keep up to date on all our work through the Tweed News website: www.rivertweed.org.uk , including the popular ‘Tweed Fisheries Biologist’s Week’ blog which amply demonstrates the breadth of activity our staff are involved in. Thank you for your continued interest and support. A Douglas-Home (Chairman)
Tweed Foundation 25th Anniversary The Tweed Foundation was founded by the River Tweed Commission in September 1983. To celebrate this landmark, the Foundation hosted an Anniversary Workshop entitled, "Are Natural Rivers Best for Fisheries?" and invited professionals who work in the field of river management, particularly employees and trustees of members of the Association of Rivers Trusts (ART) and the Rivers and Fisheries Trusts of Scotland (RAFTS), to come and debate this topic over two days in Melrose. 60 delegates from all over the UK attended. The Workshop was Chaired by Professor Edward Maltby of The Institute for Sustainable Water, Integrated Management and Ecosystem Research, University of Liverpool. The purpose of the Workshop was to explore the meaning of “natural” with respect to river management in general, with particular reference to fisheries; to assess the pros and cons of unnatural features and the impacts of human intervention. Six key presentations were given and debate took place in smaller workshop groups after each series of presentations. The following morning the key points from each of these 'break-out' sessions were presented and a general debate took place. The Workshop was followed by the inaugural competition for The River & Fisheries Trust Challenge Trophy, an inter-Trust fishing competition that took place on some beats on the Tweed and Teviot.
The Tweed completed its first Fisheries Management Plan in 1990 which was drafted by its then Technical Advisory Group. By 2008 the Plan was in its fourth draft and, as part of a major contract for the Fisheries Research Service and facilitated by RAFTS, a final collation of supporting information for it was completed. Having received comments and assistance from external bodies involved in the fisheries management process, the Plan was approved by the River Tweed Commission. The Plan, of which a fifth draft will be made in 2009, is available on the Foundation’s website, and will be presented to the Commission for their consideration. Fish Counters The Ettrick fish counter showed that the total was not good in 2008 only just exceeding the number of Salmon needed to meet the minimum spawning target, so concerns over the state of the collapsing cauld on the ability of Salmon to find the fish pass are increasing. It was, however, a good year for trout. On the Gala, there was an unexpectedly high total from the fish counter in the Skinworks Cauld, half of which were Salmon, so that the 700 spawning target for that tributary was greatly exceeded. The full results can be seen at http://news.rivertweed.org.uk/blog/FishCounters. The results are becoming increasingly important as crucial management decisions are made regarding salmon conservation measures on the River. Tweed Trout & Grayling Initiative The pump-priming European Union Leader+ funding for this work on Tweed ended in 2007 but the Initiative continues, both with the support of the Foundation and the Federation of Borders Angling Associations. A central element of this work is cooperation with Tweed’s Angling Clubs and Associations and in 2008 all participating clubs and associations received both electronic and paper reports summarising the first three years of work. Fly life surveys, scale reading, trout spawning burn surveys, trout traps, photographic records, fishing log books and physical appraisals of burns all add to the greater knowledge of the life of Tweed Trout and Grayling and assist in the advice that can be given to the local angling clubs and associations. The benefits of objective decision-making were clear because, having issued the reports, several clubs changed the size range of “keep-able” fish.
The six known populations of Signal Crayfish on the Tweed system continue to cause concern to all working on the River. As well as monitoring these populations the Foundation is working with Newcastle University with the hope that it may be possible to develop a novel method of control. Whilst a start was made on this work, the person employed had to leave due to ill health so plans had to be put in place to continue in 2009. The work is being funded through the Foundation with a special contribution by the River Tweed Commission; additionally, survey and monitoring of crayfish populations by the Foundation in the English part of the Tweed is being generously supported by Natural England.
As always, a large number of events took place giving the Foundation the opportunity to promote its work on Tweed and the importance of fisheries management including school visits, electro-fishing demonstrations, presentations to Angling Club AGMs and other local general interest organisations..
The Foundation continues its long-term programme of scale reading which is now much assisted by a part-time, fully trained and permanent scale reader. Accurate scale reading is a skilled and idiosyncratic job requiring patience and experience. Having a dedicated biologist who can concentrate on this is a major step forward. The Foundation continues to collect scales from beats on the River; scale reading forms part of the long-term monitoring of Tweed’s salmon stocks. . .The Foundation continued its extensive electro-fishing programme during the year using the timed sampling method. This allows acquisition of data from a much better coverage of the catchment (in more detail) and targets the Fry stage of the life cycle (first years) since as many Salmon migrate to sea as one year old Smolts they cannot be sampled at the Parr stage. The much broader coverage that this method allows has already highlighted a number of areas in the catchment where attention is required, mostly to fish passage. Most sites the Foundation visits have high densities of either species, along with the presence of other species existing in the Tweed and Eye catchments such as Lamprey, Grayling or Eel. In 2008, as part of its regular cyclical monitoring programme, the Foundation electro-fished the River Whiteadder and the Eye Water.
Unfortunately a new method to trap fish in the estuary was unsuccessful and will have to be changed to be effective, allowing fish to be tagged throughout the year. However the Foundation continues its netting and tagging to monitor the exploitation rates of Salmon and Sea-trout entering the Tweed. Due to the difficulties of securing netting crews for the lower part of the estuary this is now undertaken at Paxton where there is a working netting station. Although this station is upstream of the Whiteadder it does provide a good supply of fish. In 2008 however, high water levels meant that netting was not possible, but exploitation rates for these early Autumn fish is still under 10%.
The Tweed Wheelyboats – “Tweedability I and II” – are available on the River for use by disabled, elderly or infirm anglers. The Foundation manages and maintains the boats, leasing these to fishing beats as they are required.
Genetics Adult tissue samples were collected from the net and rod fisheries - including the collection of samples by angling in December and January (2009) by special licence from the Scottish Government. These samples will contribute to a major analysis study of most Scottish rivers to contribute to the understanding of Salmon stocks. Additionally, juvenile units were sampled to fit with the annual electro-fishing surveys. The work received extra funding during the year with an award from the Atlantic Salmon Trust.
St Mary’s Loch The outfall of the Loch has been giving cause for concern for some years. Whilst the water flow seems entirely passable by fish, juvenile densities above it, as shown by electro-fishing results, are variable. This indicates that there may be a problem for passage of adult fish. As such, discussions were initiated with SEPA and Scottish Water who are considering the installation of monitoring equipment.
Beavers In the absence of other organisations recognising the threat posed to native fisheries by the proposed introduction of the European Beaver to Britain and the licence granted for a “trial” at Knapdale, the Foundation prepared consolidated information on existing knowledge. It is published on its website. Tweed News www.rivertweed.org.uk <http://www.rivertweed.org.uk/> has been developed as a news website for the Tweed Foundation and the River Tweed Commission whose own websites continue for archive and policy material. The fully-searchable website is run entirely in-house and allows interesting work and news to be easily publicised.
The Tweed Foundation is very grateful to the local Angling Associations, Natural England, landowners and many others for their financial assistance with our projects. The Tweed Foundation’s Work is part-financed by:
Heritage Lottery Fund The European Community - European Agriculture Guidance and Guarantee Fund Scottish Natural Heritage River Tweed Commissioners
|
|
|
| [Home] [About] [Report] |