A Day Electro fishing Following an invite from Jamie Urquhart, the River Don Trust Biologist to assist in electro fishing the Goval burn I naturally jumped at the chance. So together with Jamie and Stephen Murphy, River Don Board Bailiff we kitted up at the Parkhill bridge car Park and headed to the first of several identified locations above and below the main obstruction identified on the tributary The Goval Burn is a main tributary of the Don and enters approx. two hundred yards above the Parkhill Road Bridge

The Business End

A Gudgeon

.The objectives were to check fish densities over given stretches of the burn above and below the obstruction and quantify the number of species. Not having done this before I was given the appropriate Health and Safety talk and was duly appointed "second man on the net" and also record keeper. I subsequently broke the net, so sorry Jim I will replace it! The equipment used delivers a mild electric shock to fish in close proximity to the electrode. The temporarily stunned but unharmed fish can then be effectively "lead" to the net for collection in a bucket for subsequent data collation.

This was hard work, especially for a man of advancing years like me! Not as hard as Stephens task as he was carrying the heavy "shocking" equipment! However, all was forgotten as soon as the first fish was seen and caught although it takes a while for your eye to get "in" due to the speed the fish move at.

During the day we visited eight sites where we caught the fish, subsequently measured, counted , identified and safely returned them to their natural habitat.

What did we catch? Well, trout and salmon parr, eels, minnows, sticklebacks and gudgeon. Some of the brown trout were approaching a half pound , with exceptional colouration and in very good condition. It was fascinating never having never seen a gudgeon before other than in a book while the presence of eels was also very encouraging.

Jamie will now begin analysing the data we obtained which will also be added to all the information the Trust is building on the whole river ecosystem .

This information will be published in due course but meantime I wonder if I can add our catch to my club catch return for this year?

If you want to assist in furthering research like this on the Don why not consider becoming a "Friend of the Don", details can be found by following the link on the left

Iain Morrison

Trust Director