This forum is for general discussion related to Angling. Areas covered would include Media Reports, Conservation Issues and the promotion of the sport.
Ilaria wrote:Thanks a million Adam ;) I'll send you a PM about the DNA extraction (or the admins will kill me :mrgreen: )
No we won't. There seem to be quite a few IT and Engineering types around, who would have done science to a fairly high level, as well as (reading this thread) some Scientists, so fire away.
Although I was sworn to secrecy I have reliable reports of GHs in Clare, Galway, and Donegal this year alone. There are also reports of other bream species in far greater numbers from all along the west coast. Clearly they are well known in Cork, Waterford and Wexford, although curiously I have not seen any reports from Kerry! Since the anglers responsible for these reports to me are all members, I will leave it up to them to contact you...
FWIW
Kieran Hanrahan
Time spent fishing is never time wasted...
2015 targets - a triggerfish, a specimen bass, a three bearded rockling to complete the set and something big and toothy from certain north Mayo deep water marks
Although I was sworn to secrecy I have reliable reports of GHs in Clare, Galway, and Donegal this year alone. There are also reports of other bream species in far greater numbers from all along the west coast. Clearly they are well known in Cork, Waterford and Wexford, although curiously I have not seen any reports from Kerry! Since the anglers responsible for these reports to me are all members, I will leave it up to them to contact you...
Well my evidence on the giltheads was only anecdotal and primarily based on threads on this site so I stand corrected. Very interested to here that other bream species may also exist up along the west coast, Kieran. Don't worry Ilaria I agree with what your doing but was only saying that I felt that it would years before a fishery could be established, as its only been a few years since giltheads have been reported here.
In relation to the Bass surly you could at least give us an outline of the project proposal. I am involved in government research so I know how the system works. Yes you can't publish detailed results prior to publication in a peer reviewed journal but that does not preclude you from drip feeding some info. I bet you will be presenting the work in some format prior to publication, whether as a 6 monthly, annual report or a presentation.
Anyway it would seem that it would generate much more interest and therefore enable you to get more people involved in the sampling. I can see you getting some Bass captures in Clare and possibly Galway, but Mayo and Sligo seem to be the least favorable areas in the country for Bass. I know I am sticking my head out here, but would be happy to get it knocked down, to be proven wrong. The odd Bass shows up but its only a minute fraction of whats caught down the south (Kerry, Cork, Waterford & Wexford). If you notice Bass are then more regular up around the North than the Mayo/Sligo with a spill over into Donegal, and this is why the theory I mentioned earlier exists. I know CEFAS had a Bass tagging program a couple of years back and fish were tagged along the south west, south and south east coasts of Ireland but the BASS website don't seem to update this link and I have never been able to track down much updated detailed info on the CEFAS site. Do you have any info on this research? Also I would love a copy of your references for you literature review or the review itself if you don't plan to publish it. At worst a summary would be nice. Its nice to see that someone sees the value in this research, but I wonder what would happen if you found that there is a significant fishery - would the commercial guys sit on their hands?
Anyway as I said earlier good luck.
drseafish,
you're right. the fact that a pop is settled doesn't mean that fisheries could be estabilished, and that's the GH case.
Thanks for the tips about the bass. The CEFAS carries out tagging prg on bass, and they've just published results on migrations in north-west europe.
As far as I know, no tagging is done to check where northern irish bass are from... I'll try to see if there's any info available anyway.
I'll let you know.
Ilaria
PS: I promise I'll post a summary of my project asap!
I spoke to my boss about the theory of northern irish bass coming from Scotland instead from southern Ireland, and I said that I'd like to carry out some analyses to test it. He said I can do it...
same "problem" raises though...samples!
I'll in Benone Beach for the Ulster Gold hoping to get some bass finclips, and I'm trying to contact people in Scotland to get more.
Of course, if you can help in any way, that would be very appreciated.
I think that finding out where these fish are from may be interesting and above all useful for anyone that wants to preserve the stock.
That's very interesting. Peter Green from the CFB (now retired) told me of juvenile fish being taken further west from Wexford in samplings taken to check bass stocks, that was a good few years ago.
In the many fish we have caught in Cork harbour we have not encountered any juvenile fish. The techniques used, hook & bait size would have allowed for smaller specimens to be caught. This could be answered by the seemingly aggressive nature of "the feed" when it happens, maybe the smallers fish couldn't get to the bait or maybe there is no breeding going on in Cork?
We'll have to wait to see what happens this year :)
Noticed that the GH sampled were found to be a late winter spawn, it'd be interesting to get similar data on the age of Bass sampled to help establish if the Ban period of mid May to mid June accurately reflects their spawning season. I believe a number of bass anglers believe it does not.
If people concentrated on the really important things in life, there'd be a shortage of fishing rods.
