The reports from the eel project and the post smolt netting for 2010 are now available on the Trust Website at http://www.wsft.co.uk/, They are hopefully a good read and certainly throw up some interesting points. We hope to get all of the post-smolt data analysed shortly to see if any patterns have emerged over the past 14 years and that project is now nearing the top of the list. To this extent, we have been talking to the Atlantic Salmon Trust and Marine Scotland for pointers and statistical help.
Last week Shona attended the AST Sea Trout Workshop in Bangor. It was a very useful meeting and the room held an incredible number of intelligent people (plus Shona!). A number of projects and work streams were identified as important and a steering group has been formed to take these suggestions forward. Hopefully we will gain a better understanding of sea trout ecology and general trout interactions from this work, much of which will be processed by the different agencies. However the Trust remains open to collaboration and are happy to help where it can. Trout have been viewed in the past as the poor relation of salmon but are equally important and in many ways (whisper it) more interesting, so it is encouraging to see the calibre of individuals and organisations interested in this species and its management.
Within our education work, we are pleased to announce that we have managed to get funding towards the school project this year, to help with our involvement. The Roberston Trust has kindly supported this work to introduce the P4 - P7 pupils to the natural environment and science. All involved enjoy this work and it is great to see the enthusiasm displayed by the children and their knowledge of the environment and its need for conservation and protection is fantastic.
Planning of this years Ghillies Seminar is now underway. This event provides the ghillies an opportunity to get together, share knowledge and question the experts on issues that matter to them. We are thankful that we continue to attract high calibre speakers to this event and notes are published on the website afterwards.
