Shad Symposium

This symposium will present many of the new scientific findings from the Unlocking the Severn shad monitoring programme over the last 5 years, along with a host of presentations on the latest shad research and other restoration projects across Europe.

If you are professionally or academically involved in fisheries science and conservation, river restoration, and related policy, please CLICK HERE for the detailed programme and to register for the symposium.

Programme

The symposium programme is shaping up nicely and we hope to host 20+ presentations over the two mornings covering a variety themes:

• Shad freshwater migration
• Shad life at sea
• Management/restoration of shad
• Threats to shad
• Monitoring techniques

Site Visits

Over the two afternoons symposium delegates will have the opportunity to go on both of 2 site visits.

Visit 1

This will include a trip out to see first hand some of the six fish passes/easement constructed as part of the Unlocking the Severn project that have restored shad connectivity to 250km of river habitat. This will give delegates a chance to meet those that helped construct these ambitious fish passes and ask questions about the designs and construction.

Visit 2

This will include a full tour of the historic navigation lock and building, including history of the navigation, shad, and the project. The group will then walk around to the largest of the deep vertical fish passes in the middle of Worcester at Diglis. This visit will culminate with a guided tour underground descending into the first public assessable fish viewing gallery in England and Wales complete with the short public audio display provided by our volunteers and hopefully a fish or two in the window!

Who is the symposium for?

The symposium will be provided as a free event for anyone directly involved in: fisheries science, conservation organisations, relevant academia, also policy makers, local authorities and organisations responsible for the reporting and management of shad as part of the Habitats Directive from across Europe. It will be a great opportunity to meet and discuss all things shad, river restoration and fish passes.  Full information for academic and professionally affiliated delegates, including links to register is available HERE.
Other interested members of the public can also apply to enter a ballot for remaining lecture tickets, the draw will take place a little closer to the event but please register your interest on the form at the bottom of the page.

About Worcester

Image by David Mark from Pixabay

The symposium is being held in a beautiful riverside location in the conferencing suites at New Road, home of Worcester County Cricket Club. Worcester itself is a compact historic city with a famous medieval cathedral overlooking the River Severn and a modern university. Located in the rolling countryside with many local beauty spots, Worcester is withing easy access of transport hubs in Birmingham (the UK’s second city).

Practicalities

Delegates will need to cover their own costs for travel, subsistence and accommodation and a list of a variety of local accommodation options will be provided to delegates.

The nearest train station is Worcester Foregate Street, which has regular direct services to Birmingham.

If you are professionally or academically involved in fisheries science and conservation, river restoration, and related policy, please CLICK HERE to register for the symposium.

Members of the public can enter a ballot for remaining lecture tickets, the draw will take place a little closer to the event but please register your interest using the form below.