Fish surveys across the North East England

Our approach

The solution

FiveRivers worked closely with the client to ensure that all permissions were sought and obtained in a timely manner and that any timing constraints for existing surveys were understood and planned into the monitoring schedule. This close collaborative working ensured that discussions around site locations and landowner access were undertaken in a proactive manner allowing clear survey programming and the early targeting of site visits where queries remained.

FiveRivers designated a dedicated Survey Manager for the project to liaise with the client and ensure a presence in the office to enable smooth, flexible planning and delivery over the three-month duration of the monitoring programme in response to the various challenges that arose. The client was regularly updated throughout the project ensuring that any issues were clearly communicated in a timely manner.

With a dedicated Survey Manager and utilising flexible resourcing of multiple specialist aquatic ecology teams, FiveRivers were able to operate in a responsive manner to any challenges faced in a given week e.g. damage to equipment, heavy rain, loss of key staff to Covid quarantine etc. Survey methodology ranged from small teams undertaking backpack surveys in tiny upland streams to large teams undertaking wading and boat-based electric fishing on main river sites.

FiveRivers’ Survey Manager worked closely with the client to ensure that robust Covid-19 mitigation and management measures were identified and put in place. Mitigation measures were constantly reviewed throughout the project as government guidance changed, with method statements amended where required and clear update briefings provided to the field teams.

A dedicated data manager was assigned to the project to undertake quality assurance, ensure robust data and provide data continuity across the suite of 77 surveys.