Closure Meetings
The final closure event was held in Wales (Bangor, Gwynedd at Plas Menai) on 8th January and was well attended by 105 people including anglers and local fishery managers. This was the last in a series of such meetings, with previous ones having been held in Scotland (Dumfries) and Ireland (Drogheda). Updates on the outcomes of all Workpackages were presented.
Report progress
The formal Report for Interreg is nearing completion
Related events
ICES sea trout workshop, WKTRUTTA, Copenhagen 12-14th November 2013. This meeting was commissioned by the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES), the body responsible for marine fisheries Assessment in European and Scandinavian countries. Bringing together sea trout specialists from many countries, it included representatives from the CSTP and CSTP results fed into this review. It is the first such review within ICES for 20 years, demonstrating an increasing interest in sea trout fisheries.
An International Sea Trout symposium, similar to the last Symposium in Cardiff, 2004, is being planned for 2015 by various CSTP partners and others from British Isles, Europe and Scandinavia. It is in an early planning stage, but results from the CSTP, other Interreg-funded projects and many more programmes will be presented. The focus will be on the practical management applications of the emerging scientific results.
Further CSTP work
The Atlantic Salmon Trust has awarded a grant of £10,000 to Dr Carys Davies, Bangor University, to carry out a preliminary assessment of the lipid status of sea trout tissues sampled during the CSTP from the Irish Sea. This is a first ever study on this topic and will inform on the condition and maturation status of adult fish which is believed to be important in determining their age and season of return to rivers.