Bream and pike will travel up to 100km in a month!

Research into the movements of pike and bream on the Norfolk Broads has revealed just how far our coarse fish species can travel from year to year.

Among the discoveries from the groundbreaking project was a female pike that moved 100km in just over a month, along with a bream that swam 35km to spawn FOUR times in a single spring.

 The pioneering research is being carried out by PhD Student Emily Winter (26) in collaboration with Bournemouth University, Natural England, the Environment Agency and Fishtrack Ltd, with financial support from the EU LIFE+ Nature and Biodiversity Programme.

Emily said: “We are tracking the movement of bream and pike in the Broads using acoustic transmitters (tags) surgically implanted into the fish (under Home Office licence and after ethical review).

“These release an ultrasonic coded ‘ping’ that can travel hundreds of metres underwater.

“Acoustic receivers then continuously monitor the fish movements throughout the river systems and connected lakes and dykes, by recording the date and time of each unique detection. All fish used in the study were caught on rod and line.”

The study has already brought forward some intriguing observations. “Preliminary results have already highlighted some unexpected behaviours. One female pike moved 100km in just over a month during spring 2019 and a bream made the 35km spawning migration four times in the spring of 2018,” said Emily.

“We are excited that this project will provide valuable information on how the fish use their diverse habitat and respond to environmental change.”

The project’s objectives are to gain greater insight into how fish respond to habitat fragmentation, saltwater intrusion through high tides and outbreaks of toxic algae.