Designing a Methodology for Surveying Fish Populations in Freshwater Lakes

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Designing a Methodology for Surveying Fish Populations in Freshwater Lakes Natural England Commissioned Report NECR230 Designing a methodology for surveying fish populations in freshwater lakes First published 23rd March 2017 www.gov.uk/natural-england Foreword Natural England commission a range of reports from external contractors to provide evidence and advice to assist us in delivering our duties. The views in this report are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of Natural England. Background This report was commissioned to review The report also includes a comprehensive review of available fish survey methods and the limitations and constraints presented by the lakes within fish survey methods and concludes with a the SSSI series, to design a standardised, recommended standardised fish survey method practical, and representative method for fish which can be applied consistently across different survey which could be reasonably applied SSSIs to provide comparable quantitative results. It throughout the SSSI lakes to achieve is expected that this methodology can be applied in comparable results. subsequent fish surveys commissioned on SSSI The report then goes on to design a study which lakes, to provide more robust and repeatable results. applies this fish survey design to a selection of SSSI lakes to ascertain whether fish are likely to This report should be cited as: be contributing to their unfavourable condition. PERROW, M.D., WINFIELD, I.J., TOMLINSON, This report has been used to inform a follow up M.L., HARDWOOD, A.J.P. Designing a study which seeks to apply the fish survey methodology for surveying fish populations in techniques to a range of SSSI lakes to ascertain freshwater lakes Natural England Commissioned information about their fish populations and their Reports, Number 230. York likely impact on SSSI condition. Natural England Project Team – Genevieve Madgwick, Lake Restoration Specialist Contractor – Dr Martin R. Perrow, ECON, Ecological Consultancy Limited Keywords – Lake, fish, freshwater, survey techniques, electrofishing, seine netting, SSSI Further information This report can be downloaded from the Natural England Access to Evidence Catalogue: http://publications.naturalengland.org.uk. For information on Natural England publications contact the Natural England Enquiry Service on 0300 060 3900 or e-mail [email protected]. This report is published by Natural England under the Open Government Licence - OGLv3.0 for public sector information. You are encouraged to use, and reuse, information subject to certain conditions. For details of the licence visit Copyright. Natural England photographs are only available for non commercial purposes. If any other information such as maps or data cannot be used commercially this will be made clear within the report. ISBN 978-1-78354-407-3 © Natural England and other parties 2017 Mirror carp captured by point-abundance sampling by electric fishing © Martin Perrow ECON Ecological Consultancy Limited Unit 7, The Octagon Business Park, Little Plumstead, Norwich, Norfolk NR13 5FH Registered in England & Wales Company No. 6457758. Director: Dr Martin Perrow BSc, PhD, MIEEM, MIFM, CEnv C0mpany Secretary: Eleanor Skeate BSc Fish Evidence Project Design BD14/15-84024-013 Final Report May 2015 Prepared by: Dr Martin R. Perrow ECON, Ecological Consultancy Limited Unit 7, The Octagon Business Park Little Plumstead Norwich Norfolk NR13 5FH Dr Ian J. Winfield Lake Ecosystems Group Centre for Ecology & Hydrology Lancaster Environment Centre Library Avenue Bailrigg, Lancaster Lancashire LA1 4AP Assisted by Mark L. Tomlinson & Dr Andrew J.P Harwood (ECON) Prepared for: Dr Genevieve Madgwick NE/EA Lake Restoration Specialist Biodiversity Delivery Natural England Eastbrook, Shaftesbury Road Cambridge CB2 2DF i CONTENTS page 1 INTRODUCTION & AIM ............................................................................................................. 1 2 REVIEW OF SAMPLING METHODS ........................................................................................ 5 2.1 Underlying principles ............................................................................................................. 5 2.2 Sampling methods ................................................................................................................ 8 2.2.1 Visual observations ..................................................................................................... 11 2.2.2 Underwater cameras .................................................................................................. 12 2.2.3 Electric fishing ............................................................................................................. 13 2.2.4 PASE ........................................................................................................................... 15 2.2.5 Seine netting ............................................................................................................... 22 2.2.6 Trawling ....................................................................................................................... 24 2.2.7 Hook and line .............................................................................................................. 26 2.2.8 Gill netting ................................................................................................................... 26 2.2.9 Traps (fykes) ............................................................................................................... 27 2.2.10 Hydroacoustics ......................................................................................................... 29 2.2.11 ARIS .......................................................................................................................... 30 2.2.12 Proxy measures ........................................................................................................ 31 3 PROPOSED SAMPLING STRATEGY ..................................................................................... 32 3.1 Underlying principles ........................................................................................................... 32 3.2 Shallow lakes ...................................................................................................................... 34 3.2.1 Littoral zone ................................................................................................................ 34 3.2.1.1 Survey protocol for PASE ..................................................................................... 35 3.2.2 Limnetic zone .............................................................................................................. 37 3.2.2.1 Survey protocol for seine nets .............................................................................. 38 3.2.3 Estimation of fish stock ............................................................................................... 41 3.3 Deep lakes .......................................................................................................................... 41 3.3.1 Littoral zone ................................................................................................................ 41 3.3.2 Limnetic zone .............................................................................................................. 41 3.3.2.1 Survey protocol for hydroacoustics ....................................................................... 42 3.3.2.2 Survey protocol for gill netting ............................................................................... 43 3.3.3 Estimation of fish stock ............................................................................................... 44 3.4 Overview of the survey programme .................................................................................... 45 4 PROSPECTIVE SITES ............................................................................................................. 46 4.1 Rationale for site selection .................................................................................................. 46 4.2 List of sites .......................................................................................................................... 47 5 CONCLUSIONS ....................................................................................................................... 53 6 REFERENCES ......................................................................................................................... 54 ii 1 INTRODUCTION & AIM Natural England (hereafter NE) are responsible for advising on the management of around 300 lakes and ponds notified as SSSIs for the importance of their aquatic habitat or for water dependent species such as amphibians or assemblages of invertebrates or birds, in a regional and national context. The suite of SSSI water bodies incorporates a considerable variety of types in terms of hydrology, size, depth, origin, ecology and trophic status, as well as use and ownership. Preliminary work on the ecological status of SSSI units by Skeate & Perrow (2007) for NE suggested that some 83% of lakes were unlikely to meet their conservation targets, which was in close agreement with the earlier work by Carvalho & Moss (1995) who found that 84% of the 102 SSSI lakes they examined to be adversely affected by eutrophication. Common Standards Monitoring (CSM) condition assessment has subsequently confirmed that 98 of the 119 lakes assessed (82%) were in unfavourable condition (Goldsmith 2012, Burgess et al. 2014).
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