I spent a week working on placement with SAMARCH surveying salmon and trout populations in the Frome river. The night shifts consisted of collecting the fish out of the trap every half an hour, measuring them, weighing them and taking a few scales. The scales were then sent off to be analysed further.

The smolt and the trout have a very similar appearance and so it was difficult at first to tell the difference between them, over the week I was there I became quite good at identifying the distinguishing features such as the shape of the head, the shape of the tail and also the behaviour of the fish was very different. The placement was very interesting and informative.