By Alex Homewood, Bournemouth University

In September, I was fortunate enough to have a two week placement working with SAMARCH tagging salmon and trout on the river Frome. These days consisted of a mix of river fieldwork collecting parr and recording their data at the table. I often spent the mornings collecting data including taking scale samples and recording species, length, weight, sex (if possible) and other data; and spent the afternoons with a team electrofishing doing various roles.

This was my first experience working with fish and in my time working with SAMARCH I gained a great insight into the migration and monitoring of salmon and trout, the importance of data collection and my identification between the two similar species has greatly improved. I enjoyed being able to gain skills in both fieldwork and data collection with a very friendly and helpful team – I’d recommend this placement to everyone!