Peter S. Maitland and R. Niall Campbell - British Freshwater Fish Collins New Naturalist Library Series, Book 75

Max Walters, ScD, VMH

Professor Richard West, ScD, FRS

David Streeter, FIBiol

Sarah A. Corbet

The aim of this series is to interest the general reader in the wildlife of Britain by recapturing the enquiring spirit of the old naturalists. The editors believe that the natural pride of the British public in the native flora and fauna, to which must be added concern for their conservation, is best fostered by maintaining a high standard of accuracy combined with clarity of exposition in presenting the results of modern scientific research.

The New Naturalist series has, up to now, almost completely ignored Britains freshwater fish. Not one of the 74 volumes produced since 1945 has dealt specifically with them. Sea fish have fared slightly better, having been the subject of Sir Alister Hardys second volume The Open Sea: Fish and Fisheries. Fresh water as a habitat was described in the admirable volume Life in Lakes and Rivers by T.T. Macan and E.B. Worthington, which first appeared in 1951 and had many further editions, but this devoted most of its attention to plants and invertebrates, and fish only receive a brief mention. Many of the volumes describing different parts of Britain, for instance Natural History in the Highlands and Islands by F. Fraser Darling and J. Morton Boyd and The Broads by E.A. Ellis, include some notes on fish, but no comprehensive account of these important animals has appeared in our series up till now.

With Freshwater Fish we believe that we have fully restored the balance. This new volume comprehensively covers its subject. The first five chapters and the last (the 28th) chapter deal with the wider problems concerning the natural history of fish. Their anatomy and physiology is briefly but succinctly described, as is their behaviour and development. Techniques for studying fish are given. Chapter Four is a useful account of distribution and habitat, and Chapter Five discusses the important and timely topic of fish conservation. Chapter 28 deals with the future and draws attention to the problems facing our fresh water and our fish, arising from industrialisation, population growth and agriculture. It paints a relatively optimistic picture of the future, provided that we can safeguard existing habitats and provide new ones in our changing countryside

The remaining 22 chapters deal systematically with the different families of fish found in British fresh waters. Every species is described, including information on its behaviour, distribution and biology. The longest chapters are those on the Salmon, Trout and Charr, which obviously include our game fish, and on Carps, which include many coarse fish (including Tench, Chub, Rudd and Bream, and the Minnow which many of us captured and cherished in our childhood). This part of the book extends the information found in field guides which have proved so valuable in making identification of specimens possible.

Angling today is the most popular sport in Britain, with over 4,000,000 devotees who regularly fish. We hope that this book will appeal to these anglers and add to the interest of their pastime by allowing them to see how the restricted number of species they catch fit into the whole picture of freshwater ecology. Anglers as a whole have done much to preserve our fresh waters, and the species of fish in them, but unfortunately some individuals have been responsible for unfortunate introductions of fish into new, unsuitable habitats. The wider knowledge this book gives should discourage such practices in the future.

Fish are known to be efficient detectors of water pollution and the actions of the Anglers Cooperative Association, using the common law, in prosecuting polluters has made an important contribution to preserving many streams and rivers. Today we have more comprehensive legislation to control pollution and to preserve our environment. Here fish will continue to act as indicator species and so make their contribution to seeing that the laws are enforced and that all forms of freshwater life continue to flourish.

Natural history has a strong tradition in the British Isles, sending down very deep roots during the nineteenth century in particular. During the latter half of that century and the beginning of the twentieth century a number of excellent volumes on the natural history of fish in these islands were produced, among them the notable works by Day, Houghton, Jenkins, Maxwell and Regan. However, over the last 50 years there has been a dearth of publications on this subject, probably due to a variety of factors the intervention of two world wars, the demise of the old amateur naturalist (usually a person of means with time to devote to his interests) and the increase in the number of modern biologists (often looking down somewhat on old-fashioned natural history) among them. A new comprehensive work on the natural history of our freshwater fishes has been sadly needed for several decades and the authors both professional biologists, but always self-confessed natural historians of freshwater fish from boyhood days have attempted to fill this gap with the present book.

The authors hope that this book will give pleasure to those readers already interested in the freshwater fish of the British Isles and perhaps stimulate them to observe more of their natural history. It is our hope that other readers of the book, who perhaps have only a passing interest in the subject, may go beyond the illustrations to delve into some aspect of the text. We fervently wish also that more of our anglers will consider a broader view of their hobby, taking an interest, not only in the natural history of the species they fish for, but in the other members of our fish fauna also. The strength of the angling lobby in this country is very great and all our native fish need support if they are to survive into future centuries. Finally, we acknowledge the pleasure and excitement that fish have given us during our working and our private lives. We would like to think that some of this enjoyment will be apparent in the following pages and give the reader some satisfaction too.

In preparing this book, we have received a great deal of help from a wide variety of people all over the British Isles and in particular would like to acknowledge the following:

Colin and Mary Allsebrook, Alastair Barbour, David and Alex Barbour, Jon Bass, Fiona Bowles, T. Burrey, Bruce Campbell, Margaret Campbell, Ronald Campbell, David Charlton, James Chubb, Andrew Currie, Christine Dickson-Barr, Maurice de Bunsen, Emlyn Evans, Andrew Ferguson, Alan Frake, Patrick Fitzmaurice, Ross Gardiner, Ronald Greer, Elaine Hamilton, John Hardie, Phil Hickley, Donald Hoy, Ian Hynd, Anthony Irvine, Andrew Jones, Clive Kennedy, Mike Ladle, David Le Cren, Fergus Leveson-Gower, Sarah Lorimer, Alex Lyle, Pat Noble, Hugh MacCrimmon, David Mackay, Mick Marquis, Jean McCormack, I. A. Duncan Millar, Ray Milton, Finbar McCormick, John Mitchell, Chris Moriarty, Peter Nicholson, Ken OHara, Margaret Palmer, Mike Pawson, J. C. L. Phillips, David Piggins, Paul Raven, Barry Rickards, Graham Scobie, David Shaughnessey, William Shearer, Richard Shelton, Iain Thornber, John Thorpe, Eileen Twomey, Brian and Jane Twelves, Andrew Walker, Kenneth Wheelan, Alwyne Wheeler, R. G. Weaver, Paul Wilkins, Gordon Williamson.

Anglian Water Authority, Bridgewater Angling Association, Central Fisheries Board (Dublin), DAFS Freshwater Fisheries Laboratory, Department of the Environment for Northern Ireland Conservation Service, Fisheries Conservation Board for Northern Ireland, Freshwater Biological Association, Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries & Food (England), Nature Conservancy Council, Roinn Na Mara, Severn Trent Water Authority, Wessex Water Authority.