East Stoke Fisheries Research Station

England & Wales's world famous top quality research station is under threat of closure in 2009

Almost 40 years of fishery research has been carried out at East Stoke, near Wareham in Dorset on the banks of the R. Frome. The station is owned by the Freshwater Biological Association and has been leased to the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology who have carried out the fisheries research until now.

Under a restructuring CEH will give up the lease in March 2009, and therefore the research will be lost.

The Station includes an office block, research labs and fluvarium, a series of fish counters, five geographically separate passive integrated transponder (PIT) tag detectors (giving complete river coverage). These are used to study the survival and migration of individual fish; along with underwater video cameras for identifying and measuring fish and radio and acoustic tracking facilities.

 

This document sets out what will be lost and the past, current and on going research work, and the station's role within the international research community.

 

The future of this station is vital for the conservation of a UK BAP species under the Berne Convention, namely the Atlantic Salmon.

Over the last 10 years there has been a large investment in equipment on the River Frome. The potential of the site is now enormous and its replacement somewhere else would cost over £1m.

CONTACT: Dr. Anton Ibbotson +44 (0)1929 401895 Email: ati@ceh.ac.ukati@ceh.ac.uk

Why is it important to continue with the Research? >>