Environment Fish Survey at Dimmocks Cote

The Environment Agency carried out their fisheries monitoring survey down at Dimmocks Cote on the River Cam this morning.
The site is notoriously difficult to survey with nets because of the thick weed margins and as a result is always left until last!

60m of the river is sectioned off with weighted nets across from bank to bank (approximately 2000 square meters) then fished using a seine net.  Due to the weed margins which cannot be netted, only fish in open water can be caught as a result the fishing here proved to be quite inefficient. 

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We shall be working with the fisheries team over the winter to establish a research and recording structure to monitor the eel population at Kingfishers Bridge with particular attention to the triggers for "silvering" the process by which mature eels become ready to leave for marine breeding grounds.   As a Stillwater site this is particularly important to ensure any stocked eels do not get trapped in a closed system, and should have much wider reaching influence for other Stillwater sites such as fishing lakes.