29-Aug-2006
- The River Tamar has come under the spotlight
in a detailed study of it’s salmon population.
The Tamar is one of a small
group of rivers closely monitored by the Environment
Agency to provide information on the status of
salmon and sea trout stocks in England and Wales.
A new Agency report describes
the results of the River Tamar Index Monitoring
for 2005 and gives the river a clean bill of health
with salmon stocks improving.
The aim of the report is to
provide details on fishery performance, spawning
success, salmon survival at sea and exploitation
by marine fisheries. It also provides information
on juvenile salmon and sea trout abundance.
The Environment Agency has several
means of calculating the numbers of fish in the
river including a tagging programme for salmon
smolts (young salmon) migrating seaward, a system
of trapping adult salmon and sea trout as they
migrate back into the river, fish counters and
electric fishing surveys of juvenile salmonids.
The report has revealed that
fish life and river habitat has significantly
improved, with salmon numbers increasing since
the last survey in 2004 with the help of a raft
of special fisheries projects.
It is estimated that around
8 per cent of salmon smolts survived to return
to the River Tamar as adults in 2005. Given the
planned closure of the Irish coastal salmon drift
net fishery in 2007, which is known to have exploited
fish from South West rivers, the Environment Agency
will monitor the survival rate of salmon to see
if it improves.
It is estimated that 5,724 adult
salmon returned to the River Tamar in 2005, which
is 17.5 per cent higher than in 2004. In 2005,
11,240 sea trout are estimated to have run into
the River Tamar, which is 5.1 per cent lower than
in 2004.
Trapping operations provided
707 adult salmon and 2,245 sea trout for sampling,
the majority of which were caught between May
and August. Salmon ranged between 50 to 88 cm
in length and 2Ib to 15Ib in weight.
More than 64 per cent of the
sea trout were ‘maiden fish’ returning to the
river to spawn for the first time. The rest were
larger fish that had returned to spawn on at least
one previous occasion.
The rod catches had dropped
and this is believed to reflect low river levels,
poor angling conditions in the river and a later
than usual run of salmon, rather than a lack of
returning adult fish. However, the catch and release
rates of salmon and sea trout were higher than
in 2004, at 63 and 41 per cent.
Tamar anglers declared rod catch
returns of 131 salmon and 315 sea trout in 2005.
Anglers participating in the logbook scheme, where
they are asked to record the number of fish caught,
reported 35 salmon and 73 sea trout, with most
fish being caught on the main Tamar, between Gunnislake
Weir and Horsebridge.
Robert Hillman, Ecological Appraisal
Technical Specialist for the Environment Agency
in Cornwall, said: ‘The report shows that salmon
stocks in the River Tamar are improving. Our work
and the partnership projects provide information
of national importance to salmon and sea trout
conservation which will ensure that fish stocks,
river and lake environments are being safeguarded
for the future.’
‘A net limitation order preventing
estuary netting and the returning of fish to the
river after being caught by rod anglers will give
salmon and sea trout a greater chance of reproducing
in the Tamar. We would also like to encourage
more fishermen to take part in the logbook scheme,
which provides us with useful information on the
fish they catch and where and when they fish.’
Paul Gainey
