RS Aqua support the first project stakeholder meeting of SAMARCH (SAlmonid MAnagement Round the CHannel) this week in Southampton

The five year SAMARCH programme, part funded by the EU’s Interreg Channel Programme and led by the UK’s Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT), will provide vital research on rapidly declining salmon and sea trout populations throughout five rivers and associated coastal zones in England and France.

RS Aqua are proud to be supporting the project by specifying and supplying industry leading acoustic fish tracking telemetry systems, manufactured by VEMCO, and helping ensure the best quality data return for the research team.

Project Manager Dylan Roberts of the GCWT said “around 95% of salmon that leave our rivers for their feeding grounds in the north Atlantic die once they have left the lower river, and this proportion has increased from around 70% when salmon were abundant in the 1970s. Recent developments in fish-tracking technology, DNA analysis and data modelling now enable us to investigate what proportion of this mortality occurs in the estuary and coastal areas, and their movements through these areas, then sharpen the tools used to manage salmon and adjust our management strategies accordingly.”

The research team aim to provide a basis for change in the way juvenile and adult salmon and sea trout are protected and managed around our coasts and to improve the tools used by the regulatory bodies to manage these populations in England and France.

For further information on the SAMARCH project please click here.