Celtic Sea Trout Project Report published

Tuesday, 13th December 2016

An 850-page report, outlining a three-year research project on sea trout in the Celtic (Irish) Sea has just been published.

There are some important messages from the work. We now think we know that Celtic sea trout are organised into nine genetic groups (so a trout is not just a trout) and that most sea trout (but not all) stay close to their natal river.

But, there is significant mixing of stocks at sea with individual fish travelling as far as 300km to feed and possibly pioneer into other areas, thus introducing new genetic material to that patch. As a consequence of this stock mixing at sea, fisheries taking trout are mixed stock fisheries where the home water of any individual fish cannot be known just by looking at it.

The Executive Summary of the report picks out other practically significant aspects, relevant to attempts to manage sea trout stocks.