I have now put all the recent invertebrate monitoring results on to the online spreadsheet so if anyone would like to see these all you need to do is send me your email address and I will send back to you a link that will open them.  I have prepared some trend graphs that help to make clear how both species of fly and numbers within species fluctuate from sample to sample.  By and large these show a fairly steady state with some seasonal fluctuations, but it will take a few years of data before we are able to discern trends that might indicate an improving or deteriorating ecology.  Still, having made a start it should be possible to detect any impacts from pollutants entering the water, but I have a feeling that we ought to bring the Tay Bridge site into a monthly check since it lies below both the main sources of potential pollutants (sewage works and Whit Beck).  It should be possible to do three bankside checks in the same week without this becoming too much of a strain on my time.  I still want to see what's lurking in Brants Ghyll after the intriguing results I got from the confluence last week and as it's a fine but cloudy day today I will try to do this later this morning.

I was talking to the fisheries scientist that the RCCT have recently employed and he tells me that they are planning to start monitoring invertebrates at 40 sites on the Ribble below the MAA waters so our programme of monitoring will be a valuable adjunct to this major work.  He is keen for us to look at a site right at the top end by Gearstones so I may well take the net up there in a few days time and see what I get.

Let's not lose sight of what all this work is for, a better understanding of the distribution and volume of food available for our wild trout - the more food and habitat you have the better able the trout are to naturally recruit.  The next step is to identify ways in which we can encourage invertebrates to breed and I have two ideas.  First is to go back to installing fly boards to increase the preceding success of olives (Baetis) second is to explore ways in which we can breed shrimps (gammarus). The latter just need a protected habitat so I will bend my mind to finding some easily accessible, suitable sites.

There is still good water on the river, so tight lines.

Ian