F.A.S.T.
- Fish Resource Group of Älvdalen
In
Älvdalen (County of Dalarna) the Fish Resource Group
”F.A.S.T.”
was founded in 1998. The unit has special competence in the fields of
Fish biology, Aqua
and Sport
fishing Tourism.
F.A.S.T.
is working broadly with fish habitat restoration, fisheries planning,
and offers courses in fish biology, fisheries science as well as guided
tours, product development, marketing and environmental adaptation of
touristfishing products. F.A.S.T. is also involved in planning of whole
drainage area use, EC-applications for fisheries development for fishery
owners’ organizations and new trials for hydropower exploitations. There
is also an increasing demand for teaching in the field of science-related
courses (project based) at high schools. The group has been responsible
for a tourist fisheries EC-project (INTERREG) named Skanland.
The project is a corporation between the Swedish boarder municipalities
of Torsby, Malung, Älvdalen and the both Norwegian municipalities of Engerdal
and Trysil.
F.A.S.T.
has developed tourist-fishing centers in Malung, Idre and Älvdalen
(Sweden) and in Trysil and Engerdal (Norway).
F.A.S.T.
corporate with Swedish and foreign research institutes and universities
in the area of rural development and sport fishing.
The
work is headed by Dr. Mikael Carlstein (Ph.D. and lecturer at the Älvdalen
Educational Center) where education in sport fishing and tourism at both
lower (high school) and higher levels (college) are given.
F.A.S.T.
personnel:
Jerry Boberg: Biologist with special competence in fish habitat
restorations and fish sampling techniques.
Anders Bruks: Biologist. Working with fisheries planning and
fish habitat restoration. Special competence in ecology, wildlife and
botany.
Mikael Carlstein: Ph.D. with special competence in Aquaculture,
fish biology, fisheries management, fish diseases and limnology. Representative
of the Fishery Owners of Siljan.
Petter Eriksson: Fishing guide working with marketing, product
development in tourism och education of tourist guides. Organizer of fishing
tours, wildlife tours and courses in fly-fishing and fly tying. Petter
is also member of the board of the Swedish Organization of Ecotourism.
Klas Jonsson: Limnologist with special competence in invertebrates
Per Leandersson and Stefan Degerman: Fishing guides and responsible for
the Älvdalen Sport Fishing Center.
Karl Sundbaum: Biologist. Researcher in the field of trout
management with special emphasis on forestry impacts.
Projects
F.A.S.T.
is running most of its activities in project form. Below you will find
a presentation of current projects in which F.A.S.T. is involved:
(Language: Swedish)
PROJEKT
SILJAN
FISHING IN DALARNA
Fisheries
and Water use management
F.A.S.T.
is offering complete and individually designed water use and fisheries
management packages.
Water surveys: Basis for liming of freshwaters.
Boat sounding: For development of contour maps and volume calculations
of lakes.
Gill netting surveys: Fish inventorying and stock assessments.
Electrofishing surveys: Stock assessments and reproduction
controls.
Electrofishing boat surveys: A novel technique for fish biology
inquires in large waterbodies.
Sport
Fishing Tourism
F.A.S.T. is engaged within the
EU-project Sport Fishing in Dalarna (Fiska i Dalarna). Currently F.A.S.T. is developing a
tourist fisheries plan for the Älvdalen fishery owners’ organization.
This is part of the efforts on sport fishing tourism done by the Älvdalen
municipality.
Education
All
of the personnel at F.A.S.T. are employed by the Älvdalen Educational
Center where we are involved in teaching at different levels. F.A.S.T.
is also engaged in educational activities at other Learning Centers:
At the Entrepreneurs residential college
for adult education Wildlife
and fishing tourism – Leksand
Sport
fishing and tourism – Älvdalen
Wildlife
and fishing tourism (College) – Älvdalen
We
are also offering specially designed courses for high schools, universities
and fishery owners organizations.
Research
Ongoing
research is in the area of ”development
of rearing techniques for grayling”. In a joint project with Finnish and
Norwegian researchers has a vaccine been developed for protection from
ASA when rearing grayling in Aquaculture. This vaccine, together with
an adaptation of the rearing environment suited for grayling, will make
it possible to intensively farm grayling up to four years of age. The
research will in future be focused on holding breeding lines for grayling
under controlled conditions.
Electric fishing boat
A
well-known concept for electric fishing surveys of larger rivers in the
North America. F.A.S.T. can, as the only entrepreneur in Europe, offer
electric fishing surveys in large running waters. By using the electric
fishing boat we are able to reach localities that never have been suitable
for electrofishing with earlier wading techniques. As a spectacular event,
dragging people’s attention at shore, there are still possibilities to
buy sponsor tags at the boat side. Want to buy a sponsor tag? Call +46-251-122
16.
The
first assignment in 1998 with the electric fishing boat was a great success.
Small as well as large individuals of grayling, brown trout, ide, bream,
bleak, perch, northern pike, bullheads were caught in the river Dalälven
at the rapids of Gysinge. The electric fishing survey had remarkable attention
in the media (radio and newspapers). Previously it has been regarded as
impossible to electric fish grayling in large and deep current waters,
but our experience is that it is at least possible and a reliable method
for monitoring fish in such waters. On the above picture you can see the
first grayling caught by the electrofishing boat and Dr. Mikael Carlstein.
According to the picture, it is no problems driving the boat in shallow
and narrow areas. The electric fishing boat ”Elin” opens new opportunities
for stock assessments in large waters that has been impossible to carry
out with older techniques. A special interest is the opportunities for
electric fishing for salmonids since the boat works well in relatively
hard running waters. Obviously, the boat is easy to operate in lakes with
a mean depth of less then 2 meters and will deliver accurate estimates
of the fish fauna in such environments.