Thought it might be of interest :

Sea trout subject of £1.8m study

And here,

WalesOnline - News - Wales News - Investigation launched into the disappearing sea trout

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http://www.saveoursavers.co.uk

The Celtic Sea Trout Project

One of Wales' oldest traditions called to assist with new scientific research. - News and Events at Bangor University


The Celtic Sea Trout Project has an overall value of £1.8 million and involves partners surrounding the Irish Sea. The project will be launched in Bangor on Thursday 11 March with a keynote speech by Elin Jones Minister for Rural Affairs at the Welsh Assembly Government. The three year project is part-funded by the Ireland-Wales INTERREG IVA programme, with the Welsh Assembly Government, Environment Agency Wales and Government agencies in Ireland providing the match-funding. A number of rivers trusts and organisations in Wales, Ireland, Scotland and North West England will also contribute samples to the project.


"Sewin, like other fish from the salmon family, are a good indicator species of the health of a river. Although juvenile trout in fresh water have been well studied, we know very little about sea trout once they migrate to sea. It's not known exactly where these fish actually feed in the Irish Sea, whether sea trout from different rivers or regions congregate together or have separate feeding grounds. Learning more about the fish is the first step in planning to secure its future," commented Dr Ian McCarthy of the School of Ocean Sciences.

The experts at Bangor University's School of Ocean Sciences and Biological Sciences will be working with Irish partners (led by the Central Fisheries Board of Ireland).

Bangor's scientists will be deploying state of the art techniques such as molecular genetics, and the chemistry of fish ear bones, to develop tools to identify fish caught in a region-wide freshwater sampling programme to their region, and hopefully river of origin. They will also studying which rivers produce the largest numbers of fish.

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Борат Сагдиев

From the second report:

The total number of sewin caught in Wales was 26,000 in 2002, compared to just 13,000 in 2008.
One Welsh angling coach, who didn’t wish to be named, believes sewin numbers have declined as the otter population has grown over recent decades and relied on trout as a key food source.

Must have bloody fat otters in Wales

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Game fish are too valuable to be caught only once - Lee Wulff

Reading that sentence gave me a horrible feeling of Deja-View.

Many years ago a similar situation existed with regard to the Atlantic Salmon - the scientists were searching for the marine feeding grounds in order to learn more about the fish but, as soon as the feeding areas were discovered around Greenland, the fishing fleets converged on the area and began decimating the stock.

It would be ironic if this effort to learn more about Sea Trout behaviour at sea in order " to secure its future " resulted in a similar outcome.


Dave.