News

As a special treat at our Zoom Christmas Get-Together and Raffle in December 2023, WTT members were honoured with a talk from Prof Ken Whelan on his many encounters with brown trout across the globe, sometimes in the most unexpected places.

Leading on from Jon Beer’s outstanding talk in December 2022, Ken demonstrated the amazing adaptability of the brown trout, which he described as the 'fish with a thousand coats'.

It’s a terrific talk; watch it HERE on WTT's YouTube channel.

Following the wettest July-December period since records began, it is not surprising that so many of our rivers are in flood.

Inevitably, there are some calls for more dredging of rivers.

Alastair Chisholm of the Chartered Institution of Water Engineering and Management (CIWEM) has tweeted this useful thread which summarises the pros and cons of dredging. 

The recent and current floods are concerning for all those affected. Having your house or business flooded is an utterly miserable experience, and farmers staring at flooded fields wondering when they will be able to sow or harvest a crop must be close to despair.

So perhaps the fate of trout in floods will not be at the forefront of everyone’s mind, but it is a question that we get asked a lot. Along with the effect of drought on trout, of course!

WTT Conservation Officer Professor Jonathan Grey looked at the science and wrote this fascinating article for our journal, Salmo Trutta, this time last year.

Our Autumn 2023 Newsletter landed on WTT members’ doorsteps in November, and it’s now available to download too.

This bumper edition contains lots of news and views from our Conservation Officers across the British Isles, including:

Atlantic salmon populations are now 'near threatened' say IUCN

Huge thanks to everyone who took part in our Christmas Raffle yesterday evening – we spectacularly achieved our mission to raise £10,000+ so that we can get even more projects off the ground and support our team of Conservation Officers and volunteers.

Thanks to everyone’s kindness, we were able to raise an amazing total of £10,294.

Here’s a list of all our generous donors and winners:

October to the end of January is spawning time for trout and salmon. It's been quite mild for most of the UK, but the current cold weather might prompt more spawning. 

This blog by WTT Conservation Officer Gareth Pedley explains what to look for to spot spawning fish and redds (nests) in the river. 

Check out our web pages on the brown trout lifecycle and the sea trout lifecycle.

We're delighted to hear that Pickering Fishery Association, an angling club we've been working with for many years, has won a major Judicial Review against Defra and the Environment Agency, relating to the Costa Beck.

As Fish Legal has pointed out HERE, this may be one of the most significant UK rulings affecting water protection policy in years. We await next steps with interest!

A new report from Norway’s Scientific Advisory Committee for Atlantic Salmon, assessing human impacts on sea trout, concludes that:

'Salmon lice from aquaculture farms is by far the largest threat to sea trout... To improve the situation, the salmon lice infestation pressure from fish farms must be considerably reduced'.

The report places the threat from sea lice ahead of climate change, culverts, channelisation, habitat loss, agriculture, hydropower, water abstraction, infectious diseases and invasive non-native species, in terms of negative impacts on Norwegian sea trout populations.

Pet flea treatments are polluting our rivers and killing invertebrates, both from direct contact (through dogs swimming) and indirectly when pet bedding is washed and the water discharged (legally) through sewage treatment works. 

We, and many other conservation organisations, have publicised this issue before (news item in 2020) but no action has been taken.

New analysis of Environment Agency data, by the Rivers Trust and Wildlife and Countryside Link, shows that three insecticides used widely in tick, flea and worm treatments (fipronil, permethrin and the controversial neonicotinoid imidacloprid) – are present in English rivers in concentrations that exceed accepted safe limits for wildlife. This is despite the fact that these chemicals are deemed to be too toxic to be used in agriculture.

Despite establishing a Species Reintroduction Task Force earlier this year, Defra have now decided that species reintroduction is 'not a priority' in England.The government said it was focused on habitat restoration and pollution.

More information on the BBC News website. 

The news is not a surprise but is a source of frustration for many wildlife organisations who were hoping that beavers would be reintroduced to the wild in England, following the Protected Status given to beavers in October last year.