THE team of fisheries scientists, who have been tagging salmon and trout smolts on the River Frome, were interviewed by the media on Monday 11th September.
Dr Rasmus Lauridsen, head of fisheries research at GWCT, got the chance to explain about the 70 per cent decline in Atlantic salmon stocks and what the Trust aims to do to reverse this worrying decline.
He, and his colleagues, told the reporter from BBC Radio 4 Farming Today and That’s TV (Salisbury) how, over three weeks in August and September, they tag 10,000 salmon smolts to track their movements.
The TV footage from That’s TV was then picked up by BBC South Today (below) which featured several times in the morning news on Wednesday 13th September.
Dr Lauridsen also had the chance to talk at length about the SAMARCH project and its aim to track and accumulate data on salmon and trout at sea – a natural progression from their ongoing work on the rivers Tamar and Frome. The GWCT is the lead partner on this major EU-funded programme that will provide vital research on these rapidly declining salmon and sea trout (salmonid) populations.
You can find more information on the SAMARCH project here.