River Yealm SAP Consultation Item Type monograph Publisher Environment Agency Download date 30/09/2021 20:46:55 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/1834/27371 River Yealm Salmon Action Plan – Consultation Document Table of Contents Table of Contents ....................................................................................................................... 1 List of Figures ............................................................................................................................ 2 List of Tables ............................................................................................................................. 2 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ..................................................................................................... 4 PART 1. INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................... 6 PART 2. DESCRIPTION OF THE CATCHMENT ............................................................ 7 PART 3. DESCRIPTION OF THE FISHERY ................................................................... 16 3.1 SUMMARY OF THE RIVER YEALM FISHERY ...................................................... 16 3.1.1 The River Yealm rod fishery .................................................................................. 16 3.1.2 Additional Legislation of Relevance to the Salmonid Fishery. .............................. 17 3.2 CATCHES, FISHING EFFORT AND EXPLOITATION ............................................ 19 3.2.1 Salmon Rod Catches ............................................................................................... 19 3.2.2 Sea Trout Rod Catches............................................................................................ 25 3.3 PARTICIPATION AND FISHERY VALUE ............................................................... 26 3.3.1 Participation ............................................................................................................ 26 3.3.2 Economic Evaluation of the Salmon Fishery.......................................................... 27 3.3.3 Other Aspects of Economic Value .......................................................................... 28 3.3.4 Impact of the rod fishery on the economy .............................................................. 29 PART 4. DESCRIPTION OF STOCKS, CURRENT STATUS AND TRENDS ............. 29 4.1 STOCK MONITORING ................................................................................................ 29 4.1.1 Adults ...................................................................................................................... 29 4.1.2 Juveniles .................................................................................................................. 32 4.2 JUVENILE ABUNDANCE........................................................................................... 32 4.2.1 Salmon Fry Abundance........................................................................................... 32 4.2.2 Salmon Parr Abundance ......................................................................................... 39 4.2.3 Trout Fry and Trout Parr Abundance...................................................................... 45 4.2.4 Other Fish Species .................................................................................................. 47 4.3 DISTRIBUTION OF SPAWNING AND UTILISATION OF THE CATCHMENT ... 48 PART 5. ASSESSMENT OF STOCK AND FISHERY PERFORMANCE ..................... 50 5.1 CONSERVATION LIMITS .......................................................................................... 50 5.1.1 Historic Egg Deposition and Compliance Assessment ........................................... 52 5.2 FRESHWATER PRODUCTION .................................................................................. 53 5.3 DIVERSITY AND FITNESS ........................................................................................ 53 PART 6. LIMITING FACTORS. ......................................................................................... 55 6.1 Fishery limiting factors for the River Yealm ................................................................. 56 6.2 Biological limiting factors for the River Yealm ............................................................ 56 6.3 Environmental limiting factors for the River Yealm ..................................................... 56 6.4 Key Issues on the Yealm Catchment ............................................................................. 57 PART 7. ISSUES AND ACTIONS ....................................................................................... 65 Water Resources .............................................................................................................. 65 Habitat Degradation and Water Quality Issues ................................................................ 65 Obstructions to Upstream Salmon Migration .................................................................. 66 Exploitation of Salmon .................................................................................................... 67 PART 8. FUNDING THE PLAN .......................................................................................... 68 8.1 THE FUNDING BACKGROUND................................................................................ 68 8.2 CURRENT ACTIONS .................................................................................................. 68 8.3 COLLABORATIVE FUNDING ................................................................................... 69 1 River Yealm Salmon Action Plan – Consultation Document PART 9. THE CONSULTATION PROCESS .................................................................... 70 PART 10. APPENDICES ...................................................................................................... 71 APPENDIX (1) Setting Conservation Limits (CL) and Assessing compliance. ................. 71 APPENDIX (2) Limiting factors in the marine phase of the salmon life cycle .................. 74 APPENDIX (3) River Yealm - Obstacles to fish migration - Manmade obstructions ........ 77 PART 11. GLOSSARY .......................................................................................................... 81 PART 12. REFERENCES ..................................................................................................... 84 List of Figures Figure 1 - Map of River Yealm catchment .............................................................................. 13 Figure 2 - Map of the River Yealm and areas delimited by Estuarine and Coastal Fisheries Byelaws ................................................................................................... 18 Figure 3 - Declared rod catch of Salmon for the River Yealm – 1959 to 2002 ....................... 19 Figure 4 - River Yealm monthly total rod catch of Salmon for the combined years - 1977 to 2002 .................................................................................................................... 21 Figure 5 - Relative proportions of pre- and post- 1st June Salmon within the total declared rod catch - 1969 to 2002 ......................................................................................... 22 Figure 6 - Catch per Licence Day for rod caught Salmon on the River Yealm ....................... 24 Figure 7 - Declared rod catch of Sea Trout for the River Yealm - 1959 to 2002 .................... 25 Figure 8 - 1998 FCS grades Salmon 0+ ................................................................................... 34 Figure 9 - 2002 FCS grades Salmon 0+ ................................................................................... 35 Figure 10 - 2003 FCS grades Salmon 0+ ................................................................................. 36 Figure 11 - Historic Salmon Fry abundance data for Potson’s Wood survey site ................... 39 Figure 12 - Historic Salmon Parr abundance data for Potson’s Wood survey site .................. 39 Figure 13 - 1998 FCS grades Salmon >=1+ ............................................................................ 40 Figure 14 - 2002 FCS grades Salmon >=1+ ............................................................................ 41 Figure 15 - 2003 FCS grades Salmon >=1+ ............................................................................ 42 Figure 16 - Historic Trout Fry abundance data for South Hele survey site ............................. 47 Figure 17 - Historic Trout Parr abundance data for South Hele survey site ............................ 47 Figure 18 - Diagrammatic Stock Recruitment curve ............................................................... 51 Figure 19 - River Yealm historic egg deposition compliance ................................................. 52 Figure 20 - Limiting factors impacting upon the salmon life cycle ......................................... 55 Figure 21 - River Yealm manmade obstructions ..................................................................... 63 List of Tables Table 1 - RQO Summary – Review of Water Quality Compliance data for 2001 .................... 8 Table 2 - Licensed Abstractions within the River Yealm Catchment. .................................... 14 Table 3 - Number of River Plym salmonid deaths reported due to UDN ................................ 23 Table 4 - Declared Salmon rod catch summary ....................................................................... 24 Table 5 - Rod Fishery participation