What can Pisces do to help?
We have a wide range of experience with clients from many different sectors. We can therefore:

• Assess the applicability of the regulations to your site
• Carry out long- and short-term entrainment/impingement investigations
• Conduct surveys to determine presence/absence and life stages of eels
• Assess your current screening
• Negotiate a course of action with the Environment Agency on your behalf.

Surveying
The core of our service is surveying; eel occurrence varies through time and from habitat to habitat, so without direct experience of the site itself there is no definitive information. The Pisces team has an unrivalled level of expertise and experience. Among the services we can offer are:

On-site elver entrainment monitoring
Our custom-designed eel monitoring rig has a small footprint and is easily installable, requiring only a water input from the abstraction site, and a flow meter. It will run for 24-, 48-, 72-hour or longer periods, to detect whether glass eels can penetrate beyond whatever screening technology is in place. The design of the rig is such that eels are preserved in good condition for the duration of the sampling period. The catch results can be extrapolated up to estimate the number of eels potentially entrained in the abstraction, daily and throughout the migration season. This information is vital in determining whether the Regulations apply to your site, and whether varying station operating procedures during the peak migration season can help protect eels.

Off-site monitoring
To complement our on-site investigations, we will carry out shore- and boat-based surveys off-site, using our custom-made MIK eel trawl and other techniques to investigate the occurrence of migrating glass eels and elvers. This will give a more complete picture of the surrounding habitat, timing, duration and size of eel migrations, and the number of eels likely to be vulnerable to entrainment. Thus, you will be able to ensure your compliance with the Regulations with confidence.

If necessary, we can also advise on a wide range of other issues:

The Pisces survey team has decades of experience in fish impingement, screen blockage by sprat shoals, jellyfish or white weed, thermal effluent modelling and tracking, biocide effects and foaming. As well as desk-based studies, literature review and computer simulation, we will carry out offshore beam trawling and invertebrate sampling, short- or long-term monitoring of fish and crustacean impingement, plankton, weed and jellyfish issues, foam generation, and other matters affecting medium- and large-scale water users.

Why choose Pisces Conservation?
We have over 30 years' experience in tackling the problems of fish impingement and entrainment in water intakes, and the full range of other environmental problems associated with large-scale water use.

We also have extensive databases that cover many marine and freshwater habitats, and offer a unique ecological team, combining international experience, biological knowledge, and statistical expertise. This makes us the UK's leading authority, and a world-class consultancy.


Contact us today
Email us at pisces@pisces-conservation.com to discuss how we can help you, or phone our office on 01590 674000.

For information on the decline of the European eel please refer to: Henderson, P.A., Plenty, S.J., Newton, L.C. and Bird, D.J. (2012) Evidence for a population collapse of European eel (Anguilla anguilla) in the Bristol Channel. Journal of the Marine Biological Association 94, 843-851 - available for download here.