THE BARBEL SOCIETY : New Research Partnership

Fred Bonney

Fred Bonney

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Press release 28th March 2011


The Barbel Society is delighted to announce today a programme of collaborative research with Bournemouth University. Describing the work, Pete Reading, Barbel Society Research and Conservation Officer, said “This project is a major development in our barbel-related research, and represents an exciting opportunity to ensure our research and conservation measures are based on contemporary and objective scientific knowledge. We are delighted to be able to work with the University in providing the opportunity to increase our knowledge about such an iconic species”.

The work will initially focus on deriving an increased understanding on the growth and recruitment of barbel in rivers and lakes in the UK, the importance of growth and recruitment in providing sustainable angling opportunities, and developing a knowledge baseline on the ecology of barbel from across their range to identify potential threats and opportunities to the sustainability of their populations. Work will include age and growth analysis of scale collections and review of scientific literature. Dr. Rob Britton, project manager at Bournemouth University, commented ‘In completing this work, we aim to provide constructive and objective information on barbel ecology that will help the Barbel Society identify their research and conservation priorities in years to come”.

Contacts: Pete Reading pete.reading@lineone.net
Dr Rob Britton: rbritton@bournemouth.ac.uk
 
William Pastuszka

William Pastuszka

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Fred Bonney said:
Press release 28th March 2011




The work will initially focus on deriving an increased understanding on the growth and recruitment of barbel in rivers and lakes in the UK, the importance of growth and recruitment in providing sustainable angling opportunities, and developing a knowledge baseline on the ecology of barbel from across their range to identify potential threats and opportunities to the sustainability of their populations.
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Blimey I nearly fainted when I read the "lake" bit. So does this mean that now there is recognition of still water barbel, by the barbel society? Not meaning anything nasty of the sought, just that it's a great thing to see & sure there will be some interesting results come from this.
 
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A lot of salmon anglers believe barbel to be vermin eating the salmon eggs
and causing a decline in salmon numbers,
 
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Ray Daywalker Clarke

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stikflote said:
A lot of salmon anglers believe barbel to be vermin eating the salmon eggs
and causing a decline in salmon numbers,
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I know plenty of anglers who think the same, but not Salmon eggs, Roach, Chub, Dace etc etc. It's just very very strange that these species seem to be in decline in some rivers, and the Barbel is doing just fine.
 
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Ray Daywalker Clarke

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Fred,

How can the BS not recognise stillwater Barbel, yet carry out a study to find out more about them.???

Surely it's a waste of time and money to the BS when they dont recognise them, or are you just pretending and you dont want people to know.....:D.

Looking forward to the outcome.

---------- Post added at 21:11 ---------- Previous post was at 21:09 ----------
Fred Bonney said:
Swings and roundabouts Ray, come up & have a look at the Trent.
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That why i said some rivers Fred.
 
Fred Bonney

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That's the way you find out about them...simple really Ray!!

Then we can say, one way or the other with the benefit of good research, can't we ?


"Some rivers" was the Trent not too long ago, rivers change, depends how much they are damaged by other things.

But then band wagon jumpers will blame anything but the actual problem, which is the state of "some rivers" and give themselves another excuse not to join the Angling Trust!
 
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Ray Daywalker Clarke

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Fred Bonney said:
That's the way you find out about them...simple really Ray!!

Then we can say, one way or the other with the benefit of good research, can't we ?


"Some rivers" was the Trent not too long ago, rivers change, depends how much they are damaged by other things.

But then band wagon jumpers will blame anything but the actual problem, which is the state of "some rivers" and give themselves another excuse not to join the Angling Trust!
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Whats the ATr got to do with it Fred, and why waste money on them ???? Your going off track a little Fred, this is about Barbel
 
Fred Bonney

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So you accept research may have the answer?

As I said, just another excuse to blame something other than the real cause..

No more off track than fish eating eggs, Ray!
 
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The bad one

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stikflote said:
A lot of salmon anglers believe barbel to be vermin eating the salmon eggs
and causing a decline in salmon numbers,
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Always make me smile this one :) Shows the lack of knowledge of the average Salmon angler.

Where do salmon spawn? Rhetorical question that one.

The headwaters of a river, the streams, riverlets and becks, up in the mountains, in water less than a foot deep :eek:
And where's the limit in such rivers for barbel?
No higher than the upper middle.

It's no coincidence that the headwaters of the rivers is know as the Trout Zone....cause there's nowt else there!

So given there's tens if not a hundred mile between the coarse zone ending and the spawning redds on the headwaters, how the bloody hell do barbel eat the eggs????
 
William Pastuszka

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The bad one said:
Always make me smile this one :) Shows the lack of knowledge of the average Salmon angler.


So given there's tens if not a hundred mile between the coarse zone ending and the spawning redds on the headwaters, how the bloody hell do barbel eat the eggs????
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Unfortunately they do, you only have to look no further than the depleted shoals of roach that used to inhabit our rivers, but then you just cannot solely blame barbel, as there are also other predators out there!
 
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The bad one said:
Always make me smile this one Shows the lack of knowledge of the average Salmon angler.

Where do salmon spawn? Rhetorical question that one.

The headwaters of a river, the streams, riverlets and becks, up in the mountains, in water less than a foot deep
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I think you'll find they spawn in the main trunks of river too - even just off the tide. They will spawn anywhere where there is a suitable gravel and riffle - preferably just after the tail of a pool.

The Dee tracking project is worthy of note - where we can watch tagged salmon move up and down the system. Very few of last years’ tagged fish spawned in little headwaters as it happens. With 100,000+ salmon returning to some Scottish rivers - you can see that the wee burns would be very crowded indeed if what you say was correct.

2010 Salmon Tracking

Fish eating salmon eggs is nothing new - that's why salmon have so many of them. I think most fish, including trout, would welcome a nutritious salmon egg! - but Barbel do seem particularly well equipped to get at them. However, there is no scientific evidence that I’m aware of that links Barbel for the demise of salmon?

What I personally would be more concerned about is the fact that Barbel are known to carry P. Laevis a very nasty parasite. I do hope research is conducted on that little horror!

Colin
 
Fred Bonney

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Sorry Colin you are not entirely correct regarding p. laevis and your inference that barbel are the only culprits.

Studies by a Dr Kennedy have shown that salmonids are viewed as the preferred hosts of p.laevis, but other fish do also carry the parasite, including chub eels loach bullhead and barbel.

There is a view, that stocked trout are much more likely to have carried the parasite to rivers where it was previously not present.

At the end of the day it depends whose side of a story you get fed!
 
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The bad one

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William Pastuszka said:
Unfortunately they do, you only have to look no further than the depleted shoals of roach that used to inhabit our rivers, but then you just cannot solely blame barbel, as there are also other predators out there!
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All coarse fish predate on other course fishes eggs William. However, re Salmon in particular, you fail to explain the fundamental question of "how?" Given the distance between the upper limit for barbel and all course fish and the salmon redds. Put simply barbel or other coarse fish can't naturally reach the redds in any numbers, if at all, to have any effect on them.
The problem of poor recruitment on some salmon rivers is now being put down to an increase in global climate temperatures. Both sea and river overall temperatures. The rivers are not getting cold enough for long enough for the fry to hatch. They eggs are being pasteurized and killing the embryos.

There's many other reasons why the roach in "some" rivers have depleted. Roach stocks, be it in stillwater or rivers, naturally are cyclical and those stocks wax and wane over a given time period. As a rule of thumb about ten years.
Add to that the more complex problems of man-made infertility, avian predation natural or otherwise, pollution, loss of suitable life habitat/spawning habitat and there no easy or simplistic answers.
 
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