Archived Topic
Topic ID 5353
25/06/2010 by Joby
Electric Fishing
Whilst cycling down on the common yesterday morning I noticed a few warning signs stating "Caution: Electric fishing in progress - do not go near the water" on the stretch of river between the basin and the new wier. There was a net strewn across the river and a bunch of blokes with nets in the water.
Any ideas what they were up to? I've heard this technique is often used when surveying fish populations.
0 replies
Archived Replies
Reply ID 75089
25/06/2010 by mjgame
yes your right, they use it usually to measure fish populations. Its quite common after pollution incidents to measure the damage, but they do carry out periodic tests as well and if necessary restock. I remember a few years back they put quite a large number of fish into the lea at hertford and its possible they're measuring its impact a few years down the line? It has been known to be used for tagging, but this is rare and to this day I've never seen a fish with a tag.
Reply ID 75103
25/06/2010 by carlos fandango
can it be used to trawl for and dispose of that american crayfish invader thingy?
Reply ID 75105
25/06/2010 by dennismoore
You mean you can do fishing with electricity? Someone should tell all those blokes sitting along the river dangling their rods all day.[;)]
Reply ID 75107
25/06/2010 by mjgame
quote:
Originally posted by carlos fandango
can it be used to trawl for and dispose of that american crayfish invader thingy?
Hmm, i dunno, fish float to the surface when shocked making them easy to catch and count. I wonder if crayfish would stay at the bottom? Then as you say you'd need to trawl for them, wrecking the riverbed, plant life and ecology of the river so a no go. I did here of a chemical which had been developed that only affected Signal Crayfish but I don't know how succesful it was. I know they did something at Dobbs Weir to tackle the problem and its definately alot better but I don't what that was...[?]
4 replies