The Environment Agency is urging anglers to add logbooks to their kit as part of a major fish recording project.
The Agency’s National Salmon and Trout Fisheries Centre (NSTFC) wants to hear from people interested in participating in a national logbook recording scheme for grayling.
The aim of the project – run in conjunction with the Grayling Society – is to monitor and compare the performance of grayling fisheries across England and Wales.
Richard Cove of the NSTFC said: “Such information, collected over a number of years, will inform and direct management of this important species and advance scientific knowledge.”
Anglers who take part would be asked to record simple details of each fishing visit in a logbook supplied by the Agency. The logbook should then be sent (FREEPOST) to the Agency at the end of the fishing season – it would be returned once its data has been noted. All participating anglers would then get a summary of the results.
Grayling are present in all Agency regions, although they only inhabit a few rivers in Anglian Region.
In southern England, grayling are most densely populated in the chalk streams, particularly Test, Itchen and Avon.
In the north the largest populations exist in the rivers Trent, Severn, Ouse, Wharfe and Ribble.
In Wales grayling are confined largely to the eastern rivers (the Dee, Severn and Wye) although populations now exist in the Teifi, Ogmore, Rhymney and Taff. In 2001 the Environment Agency and the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology published the findings of a project that reviewed grayling ecology, population status and associated management practices. The project identified future research and development needs to aid the sustainable management of the grayling and its fisheries.
One of the many recommendations of the report was that the Environment Agency, in collaboration with the Grayling Society, should monitor changes in grayling abundance and population structure in England and Wales through rod catches. This would best be done by initiating a logbook scheme.
To receive a logbook, please contact Richard Cove or Rob Evans, NSTFC, Environment Agency, Chester Road, Buckley, Flintshire CH7 3ZZ (Telephone: 01244 550124), e-mail: richard.cove@environment-agency.gov.uk or rob.evans @environment-agency.gov.uk