Freshwater - The Fishmongers' Company

From blind eels to wolverine fish: discovering new freshwater fish across the globe

Posted on March 28, 2022March 28, 2022 by Gavin O'Donnell

A new report from Shoal, funded by the Company’s Fisheries Charitable Trust, celebrates the 212 “new” freshwater fish species recorded in 2021. From a blind eel found at the bottom of a well in a school for the blind in India to the Wolverine fish, named after its curved spikes tucked under its gills used to ward off predators, the report demonstrates that “there are still hundreds and hundred more freshwater fish scientists don’t know about yet”.

Shoal, a conservation organisation co-founded by the Company in 2019, works to halt extinctions and recover populations of the most threatened freshwater species around the world. Their New Species 2021 report highlights just how much life there is still to be discovered in rivers and lakes around the world.

The wolverine pleco, © Leandro Melo de Sousa/Courtesy of Shoal

An average of four freshwater fish were newly described every week in 2021, a rate that Harmony Patricio, Shoal’s conservation programme manager finds surprising against a backdrop of declining freshwater biodiversity, “it’s fascinating that over 200 new freshwater fish species can be described in just a single year,” she explains, “you might see this level of new discovery for organisms like plants or insects, but not really for vertebrates.”

Every discovery can help scientists to learn more about freshwater species, including their anatomy, their evolution and their environment. With 80% of freshwater species having gone extinct in modern times, and freshwater fish disappearing at twice the rate of terrestrial species, it is hoped that this report, the first of its kind, will raise awareness of the incredible range of freshwater species out there and inspire efforts to protect them for future generations.

Tracking & protecting our young wild salmon

Posted on January 18, 2022January 18, 2022 by Gavin O'Donnell

There is currently very little known about what happens to juvenile wild Atlantic Salmon as they journey from our rivers to the sea, however we do know that their numbers are in crisis, dropping from 8-10 million in the mid-1980s to 2-3 million today. To improve our understanding of what is happening to these salmon, and the factors that are causing this decline, the Missing Salmon Alliance, convened and funded by the Company’s Fisheries Charitable Trust are conducting two ambitious tracking programmes across Scotland. By better understanding what is causing this decline, we can then work to begin to halt and reverse the trend and secure a future for this iconic species. The below videos provide an overview of the tracking projects’ objectives and work so far, with initial results to be shared in the coming months.

The Moray Firth Tracking Project

The Moray Firth Tracking Project is a key element of the Missing Salmon Alliance’s work, providing valuable information to help understand smolt migration routes, and to identify the threats they face on their journey to sea. When launched in Spring 2019, the Moray Firth Tracking Project was the largest, most ambitious acoustic tracking project to ever be undertaken in Europe.

West Coast Tracking Project

Right now, there is very little information of what happens to our young salmon as they journey around our coasts. This presents a number of problems when trying to safeguard this important species. If we do not know where they are going, for example, we cannot make informed decisions to minimise the impact from the dangers they face. The West Coast Tracking Project will fill this gap in our knowledge, tracking wild Atlantic salmon over a three-year period to better understand their migration routes and, ultimately, to inform policy on how best to look after them.

What lives in the tidal Thames, on the doorstep of Fishmongers’ Hall?

Posted on December 2, 2021December 2, 2021 by Gavin O'Donnell

Running right through the heart of western Europe’s largest city, the iconic River Thames has brought trade, travel, and tourists into London for millennia. As a focal feature of the cityscape, we often forget that the water under moving under our bridges flows in a living river, linking the upper catchment of the Thames/Isis to the North Sea via the Thames Estuary, and proving habitat and shelter for many aquatic species, from seahorses to the seals, and sharks to oysters.

Since 2015, the Zoological Society of London have been monitoring the tidal Thames to find out which fish use the estuary as a nursery – and supported by our Fisheries Charitable Trust – they have put together a guide to help identify fish that people working in and around the estuaries of the UK might commonly encounter.

This free practical guide contains a key to help identify over 50 species of adult and juvenile fishes that can be found in UK estuarine sampling. Aimed at anyone undertaking a fish survey, the guide provides useful information on the type of gear used to undertake shore-based sampling. It should prove useful to ecologists, marine biology students, anglers and anyone catching, or simply interested, in what lies beneath the surface of our city’s aquatic artery.

Through it’s compilation and publication, funded by our Fisheries Charitable Trust, we hope to make this information freely available to all who have an interest, as well as adding to the long term historical record of the health of estuarine environments, indicated by the diversity of fish species that call these habitats home.

Missing Salmon Alliance Launch Plan of Action at Fishmongers’ Hall

Posted on November 28, 2019January 9, 2020 by Gavin O'Donnell

On November 26, the newly formed Missing Salmon Alliance launched their plan of action designed to tackle the alarming decline in wild Atlantic Salmon numbers, to over 150 delegates from key organisations in salmon conservation, at a landmark conference held at Fishmongers’ Hall.

The Missing Salmon Alliance, established with support from the Fishmongers’ Company, brings together the Atlantic Salmon Trust, Salmon & Trout Conservation, the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust, the Angling Trust and Fish Legal to address the 88% decline in Atlantic Salmon numbers since the 1970s.

The Prince of Wales, Patron of the Atlantic Salmon Trust and Salmon & Trout Conservation, said in a video message to the Forum which launched the Missing Salmon Alliance:

“The very future of a species that has been swimming in our oceans and seas for over 6 million years will be in jeopardy … We simply cannot allow this to happen in our lifetime. Having our four leading salmon conservation organisations working together, through the Missing Salmon Alliance with support from both the private and public sectors is hugely encouraging.”

Central to the Missing Salmon Alliance is the Likely Suspects Framework, a programme that will work with international scientists and researchers to identify the key pressures on the Atlantic salmon’s life cycle and use this to direct action to where it is most needed to begin to reverse this decline in population.

The framework builds on the findings of the Moray Firth Tracking Programme, which tracks salmon smolts progress from their spawning grounds out to see. The initial findings of this study, supported by the Fishmongers’ Company’s Fisheries Charitable Trust, were shared at the conference

The Thames Fishery Experiment: Supporting Citizen Science on London’s River

Posted on October 23, 2019October 23, 2019 by Gavin O'Donnell

Since 1973 the Thames Fishery Research Experiment has turned a passion for angling into a citizen science exercise, using a fishing tournament to assess the health of one of the UK’s most iconic rivers. In 2019 the Fishmongers’ Company continued its long-running support for the experiment, providing grant funding and an award for the experiment’s best individual fish.

With teams from Kent, Essex and the Public Services Angling Clubs as well as Gravesham Grammar School and the City of London School for Girls, the competition records the number of fish and diversity of species caught, demonstrating the continued improvement of the river’s health. This year’s experiment, on 12 October, saw 375 fish caught consisting of 7 species including whiting, pouting, flounder, eel, bass and sole.

The Fishmongers’ Cup for the best fish caught was won by Steve Swan of the Kent Angling Team with a 34cm flounder. The Lady Howard Trophy for the team with highest number of points in the Adult Competition was won by Essex County Angling Team. The Schools Trophy was won y the City of London School for Girls.

Photos by Clive Totman.

Solving the Mystery of our Missing Salmon

Posted on July 30, 2019November 27, 2019 by Gavin O'Donnell

The wild Atlantic salmon is a key indicator of the health of Britain’s rivers and a key species for rural communities, generating significant revenue through angling. However, salmon numbers are undergoing a long-term decline, with Scotland recording its lowest ever salmon catch in 2018. As the species comes under increasing pressure there is an urgent need to improve understanding of the drivers behind this drop in numbers.

In response to this, the Fishmongers’ Company has partnered with key organisations in the salmon conservation field including the Atlantic Salmon Trust and Salmon and Trout Conservation to form the Missing Salmon Alliance. This represents an unprecedented partnership, utilising the co-operation between these key bodies to combine cutting-edge research with high level policy advocacy and fundraising that reflects this critical juncture for this species. The establishment of the Alliance is especially timely given that 2019 marks the International Year of the Salmon, an initiative designed to stimulate outreach and research across the Northern Hemisphere to ensure the resilience of this iconic species.

Central to the work of the Missing Salmon Alliance is the Atlantic Salmon Trust’s Moray Firth tracking project, which utilising support from the Fishmongers’ Company, will tag over 800 salmon in 2019 as they move downstream and out to sea. The project, described by Mark Bilsby, Director of the Atlantic Salmon Trust as “one of the biggest and most complex of its kind ever attempted in Europe” is tracking salmon to determine where the major losses are occurring in the first 100 km of the salmon’s journey and how we can work to stop them. The three year project spans an area representing 20% of the UK’s salmon population, deploying 358 receivers across a 30 mile array.

Significant funding will be required to meet the ambitions of this Missing Salmon Alliance and, in November this year, the Company will be hosting a landmark event at Fishmongers’ Hall, that will share the initial findings of the Moray Firth project and bring together key members and supporters of the Alliance to ensure that, as a legacy of the International Year of the Salmon, we are left with a greater sense of urgency, improved collaboration and sufficient resources to fund the impressive workstreams that are emerging from this initiative.

Protecting Britain’s Rivers and Freshwater Species

Posted on April 26, 2019December 11, 2019 by Gavin O'Donnell

Britain’s freshwater environments are under threat from agricultural pollution, abstraction, obstruction and invasive species. These issues require hands-on, practical solutions supported by good science. Working with farmers, water companies and Government agencies, the Rivers Trust network does just that. With support from the Company, the network has become one of the most influential voices in UK freshwater management and now consists of over 70 catchment-based charities working to tackle the key issues in freshwater management.

Knightwick weir on the river Teme near Worcester is breached, opening up historic spawning grounds for Shad for the first time since the early nineteenth century

One example of the network’s work to reverse, rather than simply halt the declines in freshwater biodiversity is the “Unlocking the Severn” project. Managed by the Severn Rivers Trust, the project will reopen 158 miles of the river, allowing migratory fish to access critical spawning grounds. Weirs have already been removed at two sites on the River Teme whilst work has begun on two of the four state of the art fish passes located on weirs on the Severn.

Children from Powick School, near Worcester, being shown the exciting work on the River Teme

This ground-breaking project aims not only to secure the future of the Severn’s salmon and other protected fish species but to reconnect eight million people with the river, working with over 200 school classes, 100 community groups and generating thousands of volunteering opportunities.

Jonathan White, Chairman of the Rivers Trust described the project as “one of the largest river restoration projects ever attempted in Europe…this will help secure the long-term future of the Severn’s salmon population and many of the UK’s declining and protected fish species”

Working Together to Save Freshwater Fish

Posted on March 4, 2019November 4, 2019 by Gavin O'Donnell

Since 1970, the world has lost 80% of all animals that lived in freshwater habitats . In the UK and across the globe, pollution, dams, over-fishing and extraction of water for drinking, farming and industry mean that many species of freshwater fish now face imminent extinction. This loss has gone unnoticed for too long. To save the freshwater fish that remain we need strong, organised action right now.

That’s why the Fishmongers’ Company have partnered with environmental charities, zoos, aquariums and the pet trade to found SHOAL – a new initiative to increase awareness of the problems facing freshwater fish and to raise and direct funding to where it’s needed – on the ground conservation of endangered fish.

SHOAL is bringing researchers, businesses, charities, local communities and governments together to prioritise and fund the most pressing rescue projects, to halt the declining freshwater fish populations and protect our freshwater biodiversity.

Mike Baltzer, Director of SHOAL, sets out the partnership’s vision. Celebrity angler Jeremy Wade explains how his travels have highlighted the need to conserve our freshwater ecosystems. © Jim Pettiward

The Company is delighted to have hosted the launch of SHOAL at Fishmongers’ Hall on 1 March 2019 where special guest and celebrity angler Jeremy Wade joined aquarists, anglers, businesses, zoos and aquariums, conservation organisations and foundations. Mike Baltzer, Director of SHOAL, set out its vision to save and recover populations of the most threatened fish and other threatened freshwater species. By working collaboratively with this wide range of stakeholders SHOAL aims to capitalise on the expertise and passion presented by this group and is set to change the face of conservation funding and save the diversity of freshwater habitats and species.