The tidal Crane is at the top of the tidal Thames estuary and is one of the few active tidal creeks in the upper Thames.  As such it is believed it could be of great importance as a habitat for fresh water, estuarine and marine fish – particularly as a spawning ground for marine fish such as smelt, sea bass, flounder, thin lipped mullet, common goby and sand smelt.  This investigation will collect field data on the type and number of fish (and invertebrates) and relate this data to information held by Institute of Fisheries Management, ZSL and others about the Thames Estuary fishery.
 
This type of investigation has not been done before to our knowledge in the tidal Crane and there is very little information on the value of the tidal Crane as a fish breeding ground for the Thames
 
In the past decade, a number of pollution events have severely reduced fish stocks. It is hoped that in time this project, along with the TCA’s participation in Eel Watch, our ongoing efforts to eliminate problem outfalls plus improvements to the ecology of the river upstream, will help create a larger, more diverse fish population. This, in turn, will be good news for fish-eating birds and a wide variety of other tidal Crane wildlife.

We look forward to sharing the findings of this investigation as soon as they are available.