Celtic Sea Trout Project

The sea trout is the sea migratory form of the brown trout and is a popular target fish in rod and net fisheries of rivers and coastal waters around the Irish Sea, many of which are in decline. Current understanding suggests that the incidence of sea trout and the composition and status of their stocks is sensitive to the environments in which they live. Their complex life history features coupled with their widespread occurrence, makes sea trout a unique and potentially sensitive indicator of environmental change, integrating responses across diverse habitats.

However, major questions exist regarding understanding of sea trout, namely:

• where do they go at sea and how are their stocks interlinked?
• what is their marine ecology (feeding, growth, survival and life history variation)?
• what environmental and other pressures are they exposed to?
• how do their life histories (and thus fishery quality) respond specifically to environmental variation?

The CSTP intends to provide this missing knowledge and to translate it into fishery management and conservation benefits for countries bordering the Irish Sea. The CSTP aims are:

• To understand and describe sea trout stocks in the Irish Sea and thereby to enhance sea trout fisheries and strengthen their contributions to quality of life, to rural economies and to national biodiversity.
• To explore the use of sea trout life history variation as a tool to detect and understand the effects of climate change.

This INTERREG IVa funded project is a collaborative effort across fishermen, conservation and regulating bodies, universities, government agencies, Trusts and angling clubs in Ireland, Wales, England and Scotland. As the measure is funded by INTERREG the work is focussed on the needs of the Ireland-Wales axis. Inland Fisheries Ireland is the lead organisation in delivering the sea trout sampling programme in freshwater, estuaries and coastal waters for the project and will contribute comprehensively to the overall project. Public involvement is vital and anglers in ‘priority’ rivers are sampling rod caught fish for the project.

Contact

Dr. William Roche
Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Tel: 00353 (0) 8842600

Further information

Find out more about the Celtic Sea Trout Project here: www.celticseatrout.com