By Ed Lloyd-Smith, Bournemouth University

I spent a week assisting the SAMARCH ecologists with their Salmon and Trout parr monitoring work on the river Frome in Dorset. Fisheries is not something I had much of experience of and  being part of important research seeking to understand the declining Salmon and Trout populations, linked to pollution and climate change, that has influence over government policies and conservation strategies was a real privilege. The work I helped with consisted of electro fishing and fish tagging so that they can be tracked. I learnt a lot about Salmon and Trout monitoring and was pleased to spend a week with such a knowledgeable team.