List of fish in the River Trent

Map showing location of the River Trent
The Trent near Castle Donington by George Turner, 1881: King's Mill near Castle Donington was the location for catches of sturgeon and eels.[1][2]

This list of fish in the River Trent is a list of fish species that have been recorded from the River Trent, a major river in England that starts in Staffordshire, flows through the Midlands, and joins the River Ouse to form the Humber Estuary.

The impressive diversity of fish species in this river has been known (and celebrated) since 1590, with poetry containing the earliest mention that the Trent contains 30 kinds of fish. The earliest actual list of fish in the river is from 1641. Over the centuries some species have since become locally extinct, and other species have been introduced.

Earliest literary references

In 1590, Edmund Spenser in The Faerie Queene described the River Trent and its fish fauna as follows:[3]

The beauteous Trent which in itself enseams,
Thirty kinds of fish and thirty different streams.

This couplet was closely echoed in 1612, in Drayton's Poly-Olbion description of the Trent:[4]

Or thirty kinds of fish that in my streams do live

These poems have been a source of curiosity to a number of fishing experts, who have endeavoured to guess the identity of the thirty fish alluded to in the poems.

1641 list

The earliest known list of fish from the River Trent was from 1641. Although the list contains thirty names, one of them is not a fish by modern standards, but an edible crustacean, the Crayfish. The list also includes some fish names that no longer exist in modern English, such as "Frenches" and "Lenbrood"; these species are therefore currently unidentifiable.[5]

Fishing on the Trent near Ingleby by George Turner, 1850

The 1641 list of 30 species (verbatim, note antique spelling of some names):

Barbet, Bream, Bullhead, Burbolts, Carp, Chevin, Crayfish, Dates, Eel, Flounder, Frenches, Gudgeon, Grayling, Lampern, Lamphrey, Lenbrood, Loach, Minnows, Pickeral, Pinks, Perch, Roach, Ruff, Salmon, Shad, Smelt, Sticklebats, Sturgeon, Trout, Whitling.

Note on the sturgeon

The largest of these fish was the sturgeon, a species which at one time was fairly frequently caught in the Trent, but only in low numbers. Notable examples included a sturgeon of eight feet taken near Donington castle in 1255, and another at nearby King's Mill of seven feet in 1791.[1] The last known catch was in 1902 near Holme, Nottinghamshire; the fish was eight and a half feet long and weighed 250 pounds.[2]

1676 description

In 1676 in Izaak Walton described the River Trent as "One of the finest rivers in the world and the most abounding with excellent salmon and all sorts of delicate fish."[6]

Walton also speculated (incorrectly) that the name of the River Trent might be based on the number of fish species, that the Trent is "... so called from thirty kind of fishes that are found in it, or for that it receiveth thirty lesser rivers".[7]

1751 list

In 1751, Charles Deering provided a list of 34 kinds, under the title An alphabetical list of all the fish catch’d in the River Trent. This listed read (verbatim);

Barbel, Bream, Bulhead, Burbot, Carp, Chub, Crayfish, Dace, Eel, Flounder, Grayling, Gudgeon, Lamprey, Lampern, Loach, Minnow, Muscle, Perch, Pike, Roach, Rud, Ruff, Salmon, Salmon Trout, Salmon Pink, Sand Eel, Shad, Smelt, Strickleback, Sturgeon, Stream Pink, Tench, Trout, and Whitling.[8]

This list also includes several unrecognizable fish. It also lists three different names for salmon, as well as "Whitling", which is a name for a young male trout, and "Muscle", which is probably a reference to freshwater mussels, formerly used as food in some areas.

1829

Glover reproduced Deering's list in his History and Gazetteer of the County of Derby,[9] and also provided further information on many of the then known species in the companion volume, The History of the County of Derby (Volume 1).[1]

1985

In 1985, a study of anglers' catches stated that the ‘Trent supports about 40 species’, but they were not listed. The fish that were caught most often, and were important to anglers, included barbel, bream, bleak, carp, chub, dace, eel, gudgeon, perch, and roach.[10]

2007 non-native species

Non-native species that had a sustainable population in the river were listed in 2007, and included the European bitterling (Rhodeus amarus), carp (Cyprinus carpio), and zander (Sander lucioperca).[11][12]

Master list

This list is based on Deering's 1829 list. It includes the locally extinct species as well as the more recent additions, but it does not claim to be fully comprehensive; other species may occur in the river but are as yet undocumented.

Number Name Image Other names Species name in 1829[1]
Modern species name
Notes References
1. Barbel Barbet Cyprinus barbus
Barbus barbus
[9]
2. Bitterling European bitterling Not listed in 1829
Rhodeus amarus
Non native[11]
3. Bleak Cyprinus Alburnus
Alburnus alburnus
[10]
4. Bream Cyprinus Brama
Abramis brama
[9]
5. Bullhead Bulhead
River bullhead
Cottius Gobio
Cottus gobio
[9]
6. Burbot Eelpout Cyprinus Barbus
Lota lota
Locally extinct[13]
7. Carp Common carp Cyprinus Carpio
Cyprinus carpio
Non native[11][12]
8.Chub Chevin
European chub
Cyprinus Jeses
Squalius cephalus
[9]
9.Dace Cyprinus Leuciscus
Leuciscus leuciscus
[9]
10. Eel Common eel Anguilla Vulgaris
Anguilla anguilla
[9]
11. Flounder[9] Pleuronectes Flesus
Platichthys flesus
[9]
12. Grayling Salmo Thymallus
Thymallus thymallus
[9]
13. Gudgeon Cyprinus Gobio
Gobio gobio
[9]
14. Brook lamprey Not listed in 1829
Lampetra planeri
[14]
15. Lamprey Lamprey nine eyed eel
Lampern seven eyed eel
Petromyzon Fluviatilis
Lampetra fluviatilis
[9]
16. Loach Groundling loach
Spined loach
Cobitis taenia
Cobitis taenia
[9]
17. Minnow Pink Cyprinus Phoxinus
Phoxinus phoxinus
[9]
18. Perch Common perch Percea Fluviatilis
Perca fluviatilis
[9]
19. pike Common pike Esox Lucius
Esox lucius
[9]
20. Roach Cyprinus Rutilus
Rutilus rutilus
[9]
21. Rudd Not listed in 1829
Scardinius erythropthalmus
[9]
22.Ruffe Ruffe or pope Perca Cernua
Gymnocephalus cernua
[9]
23. Salmon Common salmon
Atlantic salmon
Salmo Salar
Salmo salar
Locally extinct
but reintroduced
[12]
24. Sand eel Not listed in 1829
Family Ammodytidae
[9]
25. Shad Not listed in 1829
Genus Alosa
[9]
26. Smelt European smelt Not listed in 1829
Osmerus eperlanus
[15]
27. Stickleback Strickleback
Common stickleback
Three-spined stickleback
Gasterosteus Aculeatus
Gasterosteus aculeatus
[9]
28. Sturgeon European sea sturgeon
Common sturgeon
Acipenser sturio
Acipenser sturio
Locally extinct[12]
29. Tench Cyprinus Tinca
Tinca tinca
[9]
30. Trout Common trout
Brown trout
Whitling - young male
Salmo Fario
Salmo trutta

[9]

31. Zander Not listed in 1829
Sander lucioperca
Non native[11]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Glover, Stephen (1829). Noble, Thomas, ed. The History of the County of Derby. Mozley. pp. 166–171.
  2. 1 2 Stone, Richard (2005). River Trent. Phillimore. pp. 72, 101–102. ISBN 1860773567.
  3. "Faerie Queene. Book IV. Canto XI.". spenserians.cath.vt.edu. Retrieved 21 April 2013.
  4. Southey, Robert (1831). Select Works of the British Poets: From Chaucer to Jonson. Longman. p. 674.
  5. "An itinerary of Nottingham: Trent Bridge". Transactions of the Thoroton Society, 29 (1925). nottshistory.org.uk. Retrieved 10 June 2013.
  6. Walton, Izaak (1833). The Complete Angler ; Or, Contemplative Man's Recreation; Being a Discourse on Rivers, Ponds, Fish and Fishing. With Lives and Notes. p. 248.
  7. The Compleat Angler, (1653)
  8. Deering, Charles; Chicken, Rupert (1751). Nottinghamia vetus et nova: or, An historical account of the ancient and present state of the town of Nottingham. Printed by and for, G. Ayscough, & T. Willington. p. 163.
  9. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 Glover, Stephen (1831). Noble, Thomas, ed. The History and Gazetteer of the County of Derby. Mozley. p. 29.
  10. 1 2 Cowx, I.G.; Broughton, N.M. (1986). "Changes in the species composition of anglers' catches in the River Trent (England) between 1969 and 1984" (PDF). Journal of Fish Biology. Wiley. 28 (1): 625–636. doi:10.1111/j.1095-8649.1986.tb05197.x.
  11. 1 2 3 4 Nunn, A.D.; Bolland, J.D.; Harvey, J.P.; Cowx, I.G. (2007). "Establishment of self-sustaining populations of non-native fish species in the River Trent and Warwickshire Avon, UK, indicated by the presence of 0+ fish". Aquatic Invasions. REABIC. 2: 190–196. doi:10.3391/ai.2007.2.3.6.
  12. 1 2 3 4 "Introductory Fish Pack" (PDF). Leicester and Rutland Fish. naturespot.org.uk. pp. 17–18. Retrieved 10 February 2014.
  13. Worthington, T; Kemp, T.S.; Osborne, P.E.; Howes, C.; Easton, K.E. (2011). "A review of the historical distribution and status of the burbot (Lota lota) in English rivers". Journal of Applied Ichthyology. Blackwell. 27 (s1): 1–8. doi:10.1111/j.1439-0426.2011.01836.x.
  14. "Chemical spillage wipes out fish in River Trent". News in Brief. The Ecologist. 2009. Retrieved 10 January 2014.
  15. "The status of smelt Osmerus eperlanus in England". Report 516. Natural England. pp. 17–18. Retrieved 10 January 2014.
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