Merry Christmas to one and all and apologies if this has already been discussed on here.
Can anyone point me in the right direction as to what the EA guidelines and rules are for stocking fertile and non fertile trout in our waters?

Here's a starter: http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk...009__FINAL.pdf

I went to the EA website did two searches: the first "diploid", and then "triploid"

This page may be useful: Environment Agency - Review of brown trout policy

It's probably best to contact your regional EA Fisheries team to get information most pertinent to your situation.

Andrew

Basically the message you need to take on board is that from 2015 there will be no stocking of fertile farmed brown trout in rivers in England and Wales.

The fish farming industry has been moving towards this by rearing more triploid browns and reducing the number of diploids they produce so there is no point in adopting the attitude that you can ignore this because come 2015you will have one heck of of a job getting hold of diploids and those you can get will be expensive on account of their shortage. On top of that no responsible producer is going to supply diploids for stocking rivers because they know that by doing so they are laying themselves wide open.

You have two courses of action. Stock triploids as of now, or don't stock at all and rely on trying to improve the habitat so that wild fish can reproduce successfully.

I should also have referred you to the WTT's statement:
http://www.wildtrout.org/images/fron...ngposition.pdf

So what would be your view on stocking fertile brown trout from a farm that has been supplying fish from the same gene pool of brownies for the last 85 years? Not ideal I agree but surely it is a better option than the former and a better one than the latter if it means that the breeding stock continues and doesn't die out. I'm sure if I had a million pounds I could protect the wild brownie population in my local river and lake, but I haven't. Things are never really black or white, except the rules which are laid down.

Abacus,

The science on farmed salmonids - and it IS a little shaky - seems to indicate that as little as three generations in a farmed environment is sufficient to significantly modify the behaviour and genetic make up of those fish. You speak of 85 years of the same basic gene pool which even I, as a slight triploid sceptic, would admit has probably done irreversible damage.

I consider that the use of triploids has been insufficiently researched. Only 1 summer of study into their eating habits was carried out. Not even a full year, so nobody knew what those things were eating during the winter months. Lots of speculation, but no hard evidence.

That said, even personal observation will tell you that stock fish spawn much earlier than wild fish. I've seen stockies digging redds at the end of October and wild trout hard at it in mid-February. Of the two, I know which one my money is on when it comes to survival of the alevins. It is easy to be happy when you see trout spawning away in November, but are the young going to survive when they hatch out in February?

Overall, it is considered that the use of farm-reared trout has not had serious effects on wild fish. I believe the figure is something like 10% overall, though in some areas it is much higher than this. The southern chalkstreams would be a typical example where stocking has taken place for well over a hundred years in an environment that is not particularly conducive to significant recruitment wild fish in the first place. In many places on these rivers wild fish are a rarity.

On balance I retain some of my original scepticism about triploids, but accept that in the overall interests of wild brown trout their use is preferable to unrestricted stocking of fertile farm trout. The ideal scenario, of course, would be to mark all triploids so they are identifiable and to remove them from the fishery at the end of the season by whatever means is considered the most effective.

Hi all, I'm just in the process of updating the WTT position statement on stocking. I've done a really extensive literature review and several things jump out of the data that have been published in the primary (peer reviewed) literature.

• First of all; That stocking with fertile trout can cause a reduction in the genetic variation in wild trout populations by hybridisation between wild and stocked fish
  
• Secondly, That where this does occur these populations become less well adapted to surviving and reproducing in the wild
  
• Thirdly (and importantly); That it is almost entirely unpredictable as to when/where/if the first two effects will take place. In some cases there can be extinction (or near extinction) of the original gene pool. In others there can be zero hybridisation. The most commonly observed impact is a slow and inexorable loss of small amounts of genes that are specific to the wild populations. Therefore, in the vast majority of (even our very heavily stocked) river systems, there is a high chance that meaningful amounts of "wild" genes remain.

In many cases the means of removing particular bottlenecks in river habitat that might currently be limiting wild breeding populations are surprisingly simple and relatively inexpensive. There are often grants available to help with this approach and also there is a saving on what would have been spent on stock fish.

In the cases where it genuinely would require millions of pounds to allow self-sustaining populations; on balance it is far less damaging to support an angling amenity using sterile rather than fertile stock fish.

Thanks Paul G,
Good stuff here. I was aware of a lot of what you have said and I readily admit that the Fish Scientists obviously know far more about the subject than myself.
Incidentally, I have enquired about a Grant to improve the habitat of one purely wild trout fishery which is part of our Club's three Water Lease but as yet have not had a response although I am still actively pursuing it.

The Club's other two waters are stocked, but they also have wild fish and these also need to be protected. I do wonder however just how long the breeding stock can be sustained in these waters when competing with triploids who tend to eat anything at any time throughout the year.

While it is so simple to say..... "Well don't stock with anything then" I have to live in the real world when it comes to satisfying the needs of the fee-paying members who finance our Club.
While I know it is impossible to please everyone all of the time (especially anglers), I nevertheless keep attempting to do this, hence my current set of questions on the subject.
I hope this explains my position and thanks for your help to date.

What about stocking with brown trout derived directly from the wild stock of that stream?

__________________
The word 'politics' is derived from the word 'poly', meaning 'many', and the word 'ticks', meaning 'blood sucking parasites'

Paul, we both know of rivers where the "bottleneck" is angler competence.
Perhaps clubs should spend the same money on teaching their anglers to fish better! Before any application to stock is approved, get a Tyzack or a Proctor to fish the river for half a day
Andrew