Introduction

Semi & Fully Quantitative Electric Fishing Surveys

River Fowey

January 2023

Hannah Winchester

Westcountry Rivers Trust is an environmental charity established in 1995 to restore, protect and improve the rivers, streams, and water environments in the region for the benefit of wildlife and people.

This report has been written and prepared by: Hannah Winchester

Published by: Westcountry Rivers Trust Rain Charm House, Kyl Cober Parc, Stoke Climsland, Callington, Cornwall, PL17 8PH.

Tel: 01579 372140

Email: info@wrt.org.uk

Web: www.wrt.org.uk

Charity no. 1135007

Company no. 06545646

© Westcountry Rivers Trust: 2023. All rights reserved. This document may be reproduced with prior permission of the Westcountry Rivers Trust

Executive Summary

Westcountry Rivers Trust (WRT) undertook electric fishing (EF) surveys throughout the River Fowey catchment during the summer of 2022. The surveys are a continuation of monitoring undertaken as part of the Water for Growth (W4G) and is the twelfth consecutive year of Fry Index Survey monitoring and the second year of additional quantitative area-based surveys conducted on the catchment. Both salmon and trout are present throughout the Fowey catchment, with salmon spawning occurring on the main river and some of the tributaries in varying abundance. Trout spawning appeared to be far more successful on the tributaries of the main river with most producing good and excellent classifications. It should also be noted that summer 2022 was the driest since 1995 as well as the second hottest year on record. Conservation strategies, such as the Defend/Repair/Attack approach, have been applied on a sub catchment level dependant on classifications received during the semi-quantitative surveys. Works undertaken through the W4G project have been commented on where it is believed fish passage and/or arboricultural works have increased salmonid recruitment or where fish passage concerns are restricting access to certain areas

1. Introduction

The Westcountry Rivers Trust (WRT) undertook 24 semi-quantitative fry index and 1 quantitative area-based electric fishing surveys of the River Fowey catchment in September 2022. This was the twelfth consecutive year of fish monitoring undertaken by WRT and was continued as part of the monitoring for the Water for Growth Project (W4G) and forms part of establishing a long-term dataset of semi-quantitative fry numbers and quantitative fry and par density.

This year the sites were selected from the list of 2021 sites, with the addition of no new sites (Figure 1), however, there were a few sites not fished by WRT as these were monitored by the Environment Agency as part of their six-year cycle Water Framework Directive monitoring. It is hoped that these sites will continue to be surveyed every year to build a strong baseline dataset for the catchment.

Figure 1 Survey site location, River Fowey, 2022