A talk given on (and in) the River Meon at Meonstoke on Wednesday 4th.September 2024 by Chalk Streams expert Dr. Richard Osmond
Kate Needham writes..
There was a lot more to river fly monitoring than I imagined. It was truly fascinating. Some creatures are more susceptible to pollution than others. So each type is given a score. The net is used in 6 different areas of a section of river including both edges.
15 seconds for each dip and also under rocks. You have to slightly disturb the riverbed and hold the net downstream then fish out any twigs, leaves and so on. Then put the creatures caught in a tray of water so they can be fished out with a spoon, looked at closely using a magnifying glass and placed in a circular sorting tray with handy identification diagrams for each section.
Then the score for each type of creature collected are added up which is a good indicator of the health of the river. Like canaries in a coal mine. The data is collected and analysed. There are various other methods but that is what we had a go at. It’s quite addictive!
