Project concept
The project was designed to look at meta fish movements over the entire Northern Broads and rivers area. This area extends throughout the tidal River Bure from Horstead (at the tidal limit) to the saline conditions down at-Mile House and all the broads in-between. The rivers Ant and Thurne are also included extending from Wayford Bridge and West Somerton respectively, down to each rivers confluence with the R. Bure. Several more broads are also incorporated into the study.
A network of acoustic receivers will track fish movements, via implanted tags, over the area for at least 3 years.
By learning more about wider fish movements and population dynamics we can better manage fish stocks and the issues they face.
Results so far...
The first phase of the tagging is now complete. We have succeeded in fulfilling all of our objectives for the weeks field work.The River Bure and surrounding broads have been sampled including all 3 river zones.
A total of 42 fish have been acoustically tagged, comprising 74% bream & 26% pike.
The largest fish of the survey and tagging operation was a female pike weighing >21LBs and over 1m long. We've named her Sarah and plan to keep tabs on her progress over the coming months and years
A total of 83 fish have been PIT tagged, including perch, pike, roach, bream, rudd and hybrids.
Northern Broads Fish Tracking Project, Norfolk, UK.
The project was conceived between 2015-16 during fish distribution comparative surveys of R.Bure based Norfolk Broads and it was based upon previous fishery management concerns that have been echoed over the past 20 years relating to wider fish movements. The project also ticks boxes of the Broads Angling Services Group (BASG), a community interest company building on successes of the past 20 years in working with angling, anglers and fisheries in the Broads area.
Detail
Within the study area an acoustic network of 45 acoustic receivers has been established along with a PIT aerial array network located on smaller waterbodies to look at both meta fish movements as well as the fine scale movements made by fish in complex habitats. The study is to run for at least 3 years, with potential to extend for a longer time scale.
Fish are captured, principally by rod and line through a series of collaborations with the angling community, and tags are implanted into the fish. The fish are released and their movements are tracked by detecting the pings given off by the tagged fish.
Night working
Some anglers never give up!
In order to maximise fish welfare, reduce captivity time and service all the fish that anglers contributed to the study, meant that working into darkness was a necessity and not an option.
In addition to this, biometric data is taken for ageing and growth rate assessment and tissue samples are taken for studying dietary behaviour. These tissue samples are collected for use in Stable Isotope Analysis, a method of determining the food intake of the fish, such as roach or rudd, invertebrates or zooplankton.
To aid the identification of fish that have been tagged a visual mark using an elastomer dye is injected into the dorsal fin.
More results...
The second and third phases of the tagging are now complete. We have succeeded in fulfilling most of our objectives for these last two weeks of tagging in the Rivers Thurne and Ant respectively. The River Thurne threw up a few surprises, the biggest was this >30lbs monster (opposite). This lady was appropriately called Tessie and again we plan to keep an eye on her progress over the coming months.
So far a total of 31fish have been acoustically tagged, comprising 74% bream & 26% pike. 55% of all fish tagged with hydroacoustic tags were bream and 45% were pike.
A total of 77 fish have been PIT tagged, including pike, roach and bream.
On the River Ant a total of 37 fish were acoustically tagged, comprising 68% bream and 32% pike. All fish were PIT tagged.
The overall total thus far is 206 fish tagged of which 110 are acoustically tagged.
Angler involvement
It is fair to say that without the continued support from the angling community the project would not be in the position it currently enjoys. Many anglers traveled to assist with the project, none more than the members of the Pike Angling Club of Great Britain. Local dedicated anglers fished overnight in cold, windy conditions and helped make the tagging sessions the success that they undoubtedly were.
Update on the River Bure fish...
From the first session on the River Bure we have successfully detected 96% of all fish implanted with hydroacoustic tags.