The nutritional benefits of eating fish are well known – but it’s the health-boosting power of catching them that are arguably less well known. Angling is one of the UK’s most popular pastimes and it’s one of the healthiest too. In …
When you are dealing with a water body the size of London’s Hyde Park, the presence of two or three dead fish may not seem significant, but it can be an important early warning that something is wrong. So when …
For fish all over the country, summer can be a stressful time of year. The hot, sunny weather we enjoy so much can lead to low flows in rivers, and stillwater fisheries (with ponds and lakes) start to warm …
Here at the National Coarse Fish Rearing Unit near Nottingham, the new spawning season is in full swing where each year we spawn and rear 9 different species of fish. The process starts in March with dace and grayling. This …
Whenever anyone buys a rod licence to fish for salmon and sea trout they are legally obliged to let us know if they have caught fish and how many times they went fishing. This is really important data because it …
It may seem strange that a Fisheries Officer would be attending ‘SOSfest’, a public safety festival! It was filled with stalls manned by the Police, Fire Service, Ambulance and Armed Forces to name a few. My flood resilience colleagues were …
The Sampling and Collection teams have an important role to play for the Environment Agency to help understand and enhance our water wildlife, but what does the work involve? The sampling and collecting teams (S&C) primary function in fisheries is to …
I’m often asked “why do I need to buy a rod licence, what do I get for my £27?” Apart from it being the law for anyone fishing for migratory and freshwater fish, the income from rod licence sales funds …
I was one of the many Environment Agency fisheries officers out in force this spring checking fishing rod licences. It’s a necessary part of the job – we don’t like spoiling someone’s day out, but if you go fishing you …
