Introduction

Electric Fishing Fry Index Survey

River Teign

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 Teign catchment during the summer of 2022. The surveys are a continuation of monitoring undertaken during the Catchment Restoration Fund programmes which took place 2012-2015 and are now possible through donations from the Teign Restoration Project, monitoring under the South West Water (SWW) South Teign Gravel Augmentation Project (reported separately, however, results included here for catchment context) and the Woodland Trust. Both salmon and trout are present throughout the Teign, and numbers are highest along the main river stem with some natural annual fluctuations. It should be noted that summer 2022 was the driest since 1995 as well as the second hottest year on record. Despite this, high numbers of juvenile Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) were recorded. Conservation strategies, such as the Defend/Repair/Attack approach, can be applied on a sub catchment level with recommended fisheries management actions suggested to either improve or maintain salmonid habitat and numbers.

1. Introduction

The Westcountry Rivers Trust (WRT) undertook semi-quantitative fry index electric fishing survey of the River Teign catchment in August and September 2022. This was the tenth year of fish monitoring undertaken by WRT and forms part of establishing a long-term dataset of semi-quantitative fry numbers.

This year, the survey programme was largely based around the 2021 programme, however, there were some sites not fished by WRT as these were either monitored by the Environment Agency or not fishable due to river conditions. It is hoped that the programme will continue to be surveyed every year to build a strong baseline dataset for the catchment. An additional four surveys were conducted as part of the South West Water gravel augmentation project associated with Fernworthy Reservoir, and a donation from the Woodland Trust allowed WRT to expand the survey program by an additional five sites.

Figure 1 Survey site location, River Teign, 2022