Meet the team

After leaving the hallowed grounds of Sparsholt College I moved back to my beloved Yorkshire. My first job was working for the EA Dales region on the summer surveys; this was a great way to learn the different survey techniques and gave me a grounding in data handling, gear maintenance, pork pie eating and tea drinking. I worked with a great team (including Mike Lee, Ian Dolben and Steve Axford) many of whom are still friends today. From there I moved back to Winchester to take a post with Hampshire County Council as a laboratory technician working on soil sampling and analysis. Once my girlfriend (now wife) had completed her time at Sparsholt we moved once again to Yorkshire.

A graduate of Sparsholt College and Aberystwyth University, Iain spent several years fish farming in the UK and abroad before spending time running and building Sea Life centres.

A spell river keeping on one of the most iconic chalk streams in the world was a highlight as was working as a commercial diver.

He spent 14 years working in Fisheries for the Environment Agency before leaving to become head of Fisheries  at a college in the Southwest. The stressful  life of a teacher also put paid to a lucrative sideline in testing and reviewing hair care products.

He has been working for the IFM since 2015.

Originally from Liverpool but now a native of Somerset, Iain can be found indulging his passion for photography, rugby, quizzes and movies as often as his three boys allow.

He also has an encyclopaedic knowledge of dad jokes that he’s happy to share at any time.

My interest in fish started with a bit of fishing.

Having completed a Biology degree at Plymouth Polytechnic I went from working in hotels to working on a local trout farm. After 4 years of hard graft on a variety of fish farms in the South West of England, Germany and Portugal I was lucky enough to cross paths with Professor Margaret Mannings. She persuaded me to try for a Masters in Applied Fish Biology and changed my life with her quiet authority and by introducing me to the joy of knowing stuff… During this time I met several inspirational teachers including Ben and Tony Mathews and Jack Harris.

After a fantastic year at Plymouth University I was lucky enough to land a job at the National Fisheries Laboratory which really developed my love of parasites. Again I was fortunate enough in the ten years at the Lab to work with a whole variety of fantastic colleagues. A dream to teach took me on to Brooksby College in Leicestershire where I became a lecturer and met a whole range of interesting students. I promise you that teachers have the hardest job in the world.

I Have run my own business, Blueroof Ltd., for 20 years and continue with teaching and parasites and fish in equal measure.

The Institute of Fisheries Management has run throughout my time in fisheries and I have held a variety of posts including Editor of FISH Magazine and Director of Training.

Marcus McAuley joined the then DANI (Department of Agriculture for Northern Ireland) as a fisheries officer in 1987 having graduated from Queen’s University, Belfast in Agriculture and Fisheries. This career path led to the post of Chief Fisheries Officer in 2006 with responsibility for salmon and inland fisheries conservation and protection, and angling development. Salmon and eel policy became the focus over the next period as NASCO developed its agreements and the EU responded to the crash in eel recruitment. Marcus has also worked in Forest Management and more recently as Strategy and Change Director with the Northern Ireland  Environment Agency.

Marcus joined the IFM in 1991 while working at Bushmills Salmon Station on salmon management with colleagues in the Agri-Food and Biosiences Institute (AFBI). Memories of the fairground faces emerging from the mist in the dark at a IFM conference in Somerset still haunt him!

Marcus lives in Northern Ireland spending time between Enniskillen and Holywood. Spare time is taken up with running (now jogging!), music, and a bit of coarse angling on the fabulous Erne.

Born in Kenya, two of my earliest memories are of visiting the fish market in Malindi and catching a kingfish off the East African coast which was bigger than myself.  These experiences created a lifelong interest in fish and fishing and, after gaining a first degree in Biological Sciences at Westfield College London then an MSc in Applied Fish Biology at Plymouth, I began my career as a research scientist with the Salmon Research Trust of Ireland in Co Mayo.  As well as carrying out studies into the biology and population dynamics of salmon and sea trout, as a keen fisherman, I was delighted also to run the Burrishoole recreational fishery.

After 9 years, I returned to England to join the NRA as Assistant to the Head of Fisheries, helping at the set up this new organisation.  I next moved to the North West as an Area Fisheries, Recreation and Ecology Manager and during this period I was also responsible for the NRA’s Fisheries R&D programme and wrote the first National Salmon Strategy for England & Wales.

As both a member of the House of Lords and on the NRA’s Bill Team, I played a role in helping to shape the Environment Bill which created The Environment Agency, within which organisation, I subsequently became an Area Manager for both Thames North East and South East Areas.  Between 2003 and 2006, I was the Agency’s Head of Wildlife, Recreation and Marine where I set up its first Marine Policy unit, produced its first Marine Strategy and State of the Marine Environment Report.      My last seven years within the Agency were spent as Director Wales, responsible for the delivery of all of the Agency’s activities in Wales.

My first involvement with the IFM was when I helped to resurrect the Irish branch in the mid 1980s.  I became a Chartered Environmentalist in 2006, was made a Fellow of the Institute in 2012 and was co-opted onto Council in 2013.

Now retired, I continue to take a keen interest in fish and the environment in general.  I recently stepped down as a Director of the Angling Trust and am currently a Council Member of the RSPB as well as being a member of its Welsh Advisory Committee and am Chair of Afonydd Cymru, the umbrella body for Welsh Rivers Trusts.

Heidi graduated from Portsmouth Polytechnic 1990 with a BSc Hons In Biological Sciences.  She followed that in 1991 an MSc. at Kings College London in Aquatic Resource Management.

Stints in Environmental consultancies working on salmon rivers in Scotland was followed by joining the National Rivers Authority in 1993. As a fisheries assistant and then officer in the Thames Region she spent her early career in operational teams monitoring fisheries, advising clubs and landowners and leading projects including early coarse fish radio tagging.  The 2000’s saw Heidi move to a national role working on crayfish byelaws, wider eel legislation followed by time as the national salmon manager and a review of all salmon and sea trout commercial net fishing.

More recently, she leads the team that bring in the fisheries rod licence income and its use in maintaining, improving, and developing our fisheries.  Heidi actively uses her experience and position to mentor and promote women in fisheries.

Heidi has been an IFM member since 1993 and was granted a fellowship in 2020

Heidi lives near Reading and has 2 almost grown sons.  Both have experienced fishing but not yet committed to it as a number 1 pastime. When asked of their mum they have advised never to put her in charge of a canoe or a boat with oars.

I moved to Yorkshire as a student in 1970 and have spent the rest of my life there. I joined the Yorkshire River Authority in 1973 as a fisheries scientist and rose slowly through the ranks as a fisheries scientist through successive organisations until I retired from the Environment Agency in 2010.

I think I joined IFM in 1971, with the encouragement of Robin Templeton, and have held various posts over the years.  The IFM certainly kept my enthusiasm for fisheries fuelled over the years, and I was pleased to be elected a Fellow in 1992. I must have given something to have justified that honour, although isn’t it nice when work and your personal interests coincide!

I took advantage of the opportunities that IFM provided for personal development in many ways – attending and giving papers at conferences, setting and marking exams, travelling to the American Fisheries Society conference, chairing Council and editing FISH.  I am now using my knowledge and experience for the public benefit in promoting the advancement of the science and practice of sustainable fisheries and aquatic ecosystem protection, conservation and management. I hope that you will join me in this objective.

My career in fisheries started in 2000 working as a summer student for the Environment Agency, assisting in the annual surveys of the Dales rivers, and have remained here ever since, undertaking a wide and varied array of tasks, as a Fisheries Scientist. I am currently the Fisheries Officer for East Yorkshire

Like a number of us at the Institute I started my fishy education at Sparsholt College with a BSc Honours in Aquaculture & Fisheries Science.

I now have a young family so my fishing time has become somewhat limited, however, I still try to get out at least once a week and enjoy making the most of what East Yorkshire has to offer. I may be tope fishing from the beach one week and then fishing for roach on the canal, or barbel on the river the next. Over the winter I partner Paul on the winter leagues where we mostly scratch around for a couple of pounds of bits and try to stave of frostbite!

After attempting to tackle killer shrimp as part of her Master’s thesis at Swansea University, Emma landed her first role with Environment Agency Wales as an Assistant Technical Fisheries Officer.  Since then she has worked in various freshwater monitoring roles with the majority of that time spent solely on fish.  Living in Wales there aren’t many coarse fish so over the last couple of years her efforts have been focused on protecting the remaining salmon and sea trout stocks and monitoring the slightly more elusive species under the Habitats Directive.  For the time being she is the Specialist Advisor for Freshwater Fisheries and Ecology Monitoring.

Her first official role for the IFM was the Chartered Environmentalist Coordinator but since then she’s been collecting roles like Brownie Badges, taking up the role as Welsh Branch secretary not long afterwards.   After agreeing to be a mentor for the Diploma course and becoming firmly embedded in the Training Committee she then excitedly took up the role of Freshwater Biology Tutor on the Freshwater Biology Certificate Course.

When she’s not filling her time with fish Emma can be found in her local CrossFit gym chasing PBs or surfing and mountain biking in the epic landscape of South Wales.  Bendigedig!

I completed a BSc. in Marine and Freshwater Biology at the University of Hull, followed by a Masters and PhD. in Fisheries Science at Hull International Fisheries Institute. It was during my post graduate studies that I learned of the Institute of Fisheries Management, and became a member. In 2012 I started working at the Environment Agency. I was Fisheries Officer for six years before working in Analysis and Reporting, and an Advisor in Environmental Monitoring Service.

During this time I have also become the Chair of the IFM Midland Branch, Vice Chair of the Fish and Environment Specialist Section and now Editor of FISH Magazine.

My interest in fisheries happened accidentally, following a summer day horse ride where I spotted EA staff sampling in the sun and thought, ‘I’d like that job!’ – if only I’d have known the leaking waders and chest deep in -7˚c reality! I studied marine biology at Swansea University but my focus was on freshwater fisheries. Whilst there, I worked with PhD students on various salmonid behavioural studies and did my dissertation on the habitat refuge preferences of the common bullhead. After my undergraduate degree, I secured a Fisheries Society of the British Isles grant to head to Glasgow University to further look into refuge preferences of the bullhead, this time by using Lego in lab controlled experiments! I was really lucky to be able to join the Clyde River Foundation in their electrofishing fieldwork in beautiful Scottish rivers.

For my Masters degree, I researched the phenotypic and physiological differences between wild and stocked Atlantic salmon in the River Taff, Cardiff, using genetic analysis and scale aging. During this time, I also volunteered at the Centre for Sustainable Aquaculture where I mainly looked after killifish, a species that amazed me, not just due to the fact that they can change genders depending on the current gender ratio in their shoal, but also the huge amount of time they can survive out of water (up to 2 months!)

I have spent the majority of my career to date working in the Rivers Trust movement, first with Bristol Avon Rivers Trust for several years and now recently moving back to Wales to work with West Wales Rivers Trust. I am a firm believer in the need for river restoration in order to improve freshwater fisheries. The current need to confine rivers to within their banks, a fraction of the habitat fish used to have available to them, and to ‘tidy’ up valuable habitat is one I am passionate about changing mind-sets for.

I first became involved with the IFM when I completed the Fisheries Management Diploma. I spend much of my free time in the water but this is mainly white water kayaking and surfing! Otherwise I enjoy camping, horse riding and gardening.

Adrian Smith, MIRM is currently the CEO of Belle Vue Speedway and a Non-Exec Director of two captive insurance companies. Over the last 20 years, he has held several senior exec roles in a variety of FTSE 100 and 200 companies mostly specialising in risk management and insurance but also in other operational areas including corporate governance and social responsibility.

Adrian graduated from Hatfield Polytechnic (now the University of Hertfordshire) in 1991 with an HND in Business & Finance and went on to become a member of the Institute of Risk Management and has recently completed 2 unit of the Institute of Fisheries Management certificate course.

Adrian lives in Bedfordshire, is an ardent angler of over 40 years, a keen long-distance runner, and follower of football and rugby – the latter of which he played and was a long serving committee member for his local club.

I have loved boats, ponds, fish and fishing for as far back as I can remember. My uncle was a vet at Chester Zoo and I helped him in my youth, but then thought that fish were my first love.  I went to Liverpool University given their standing in freshwater fisheries. Restructuring at the time of my final year meant I went to the Isle of Man and did Marine Biology, focussing on flatfish!

I joined the water industry in 1976 first as a water quality officer in Derbyshire then as a senior fisheries bailiff in north London.  I spent the next nine years learning my craft of freshwater fisheries science, regulation and management. I moved to south London in 1985 and wondered why no one was conducting fish surveys on the tidal Thames, other than sampling the power station screens. By 1992 we had set up a biannual multimethod fish sampling programme at 6 sites down the estuary. Regarded nationally as something of an oddball, regional management allowed us to continue because we were actively using the data to influence several environmental management themes. In 2001, some early work for what became the Water Framework Directive noted that our survey programme was a unique example of European Best Practice in transitional waters for the WFD! Somewhat shell shocked, I became a national advisor promoting the uptake of our methodology and assisting area colleagues with development challenges in estuaries. At the same time, I started mucking about in saltmarshes and managed realignments.

I left the Environment Agency A in 2011 and set up our consultancy SC² with a colleague. Still working in the same fields and now recognised as a national expert in fish ecology and fisheries management in estuaries, fish ecology in saltmarshes and sturgeon.

I have been a keen member of the IFM since 1976. I have been the Branch Secretary of the London & S.E. Branch since 1994 and chair of the Estuarine and Marine Specialist Section since 2011. I am a Chartered Fellow of the Institute.

My other passions are boating and music. My wife and I met in 1972 at a Wishbone Ash concert- favourite track -Phoenix. Same name as our new canal boat.  Here crossing the Pontcysyllte aqueduct….. and I hate heights!!!!

After leaving the hallowed grounds of Sparsholt College I moved back to my beloved Yorkshire. My first job was working for the EA Dales region on the summer surveys; this was a great way to learn the different survey techniques and gave me a grounding in data handling, gear maintenance, pork pie eating and tea drinking. I worked with a great team (including Mike Lee, Ian Dolben and Steve Axford) many of whom are still friends today. From there I moved back to Winchester to take a post with Hampshire County Council as a laboratory technician working on soil sampling and analysis. Once my girlfriend (now wife) had completed her time at Sparsholt we moved once again to Yorkshire.

A graduate of Sparsholt College and Aberystwyth University, Iain spent several years fish farming in the UK and abroad before spending time running and building Sea Life centres.

A spell river keeping on one of the most iconic chalk streams in the world was a highlight as was working as a commercial diver.

He spent 14 years working in Fisheries for the Environment Agency before leaving to become head of Fisheries  at a college in the Southwest. The stressful  life of a teacher also put paid to a lucrative sideline in testing and reviewing hair care products.

He has been working for the IFM since 2015.

Originally from Liverpool but now a native of Somerset, Iain can be found indulging his passion for photography, rugby, quizzes and movies as often as his three boys allow.

He also has an encyclopaedic knowledge of dad jokes that he’s happy to share at any time.

My interest in fish started with a bit of fishing.

Having completed a Biology degree at Plymouth Polytechnic I went from working in hotels to working on a local trout farm. After 4 years of hard graft on a variety of fish farms in the South West of England, Germany and Portugal I was lucky enough to cross paths with Professor Margaret Mannings. She persuaded me to try for a Masters in Applied Fish Biology and changed my life with her quiet authority and by introducing me to the joy of knowing stuff… During this time I met several inspirational teachers including Ben and Tony Mathews and Jack Harris.

After a fantastic year at Plymouth University I was lucky enough to land a job at the National Fisheries Laboratory which really developed my love of parasites. Again I was fortunate enough in the ten years at the Lab to work with a whole variety of fantastic colleagues. A dream to teach took me on to Brooksby College in Leicestershire where I became a lecturer and met a whole range of interesting students. I promise you that teachers have the hardest job in the world.

I Have run my own business, Blueroof Ltd., for 20 years and continue with teaching and parasites and fish in equal measure.

The Institute of Fisheries Management has run throughout my time in fisheries and I have held a variety of posts including Editor of FISH Magazine and Director of Training.

I have always had a passion for fisheries and the environment having been an enthusiastic angler growing up fishing the canals near Rugby, the Warwickshire Avon and rivers and dykes in Norfolk.  My dream was to catch a mammoth pike. Combined with this enjoyment of the outdoors, is a spirit for adventure, and after leaving school I was a volunteer teacher, alongside my identical twin brother, in a village on the shores of Lake Victoria in Kenya, where I happened to catch a 50lb Nile perch on a Woolworths rod!  After University, I spent over a year on the Mosquito Coast of Honduras with Tearfund working on a development project to support Miskito Indians, which included exploring tropical lagoons and mangrove swamp by dugout canoe.

Equipped with a BSc in Geography from Durham University and an MSc in Marine Environmental Protection from Bangor University, I was fortunate to be appointed as a Fisheries Officer with the National Rivers Authority in Hampshire in 1991.  Who would have guessed that I would be still working in this field, now as the Environment Agency’s Senior Specialist for Salmonid Management for England.

Achievements that I am most proud of include winning a Millennium Marque for the Hermitage River Restoration Project, which remains one of the biggest urban river restoration projects in the south of England.  Other highlights include chairing the England Chalk River Biodiversity Action Plan Steering Group, being lead author for the first ever report on the state of England’s chalk rivers and undertaking numerous chalkstream river restoration projects.  More recently, I helped develop the Salmon Five Point Approach to conserve and enhance England’s salmon populations and I have enjoyed representing the Environment Agency at NASCO (North Atlantic Salmon Conservation Organisation).

Throughout this time, I have been an active member of the Institute of Fisheries Management, including gaining the IFM’s Certificate in the early 1990s and more recently being the Editor of the FISH magazine. I became the Executive Director in January 2020.

I live in Winchester with Clare and three sons Harry, Charlie and Tom, and I am a keen allotmenteer, canoeist and marshman.

Jim Lyons is a Fisheries Scientist with the Environment Agency, specialising in the development and application of hydroacoustics to assess fish populations in freshwater rivers and lakes. He has over thirty years’ experience working in fisheries science and management across the UK in both freshwater and estuarine environments.

He contributed to the early research and development of both fisheries hydroacoustics in large lowland rivers and estuarine fish monitoring on the tidal Thames.  At present he is responsible for providing a national scientific and technical lead to support the delivery of fieldwork, data analysis and reporting of acoustic survey data.

His articles and reports have appeared in international journals, national fisheries publications and internal communications. He has previously presented papers on both hydroacoustics and other fisheries monitoring and management issues at conferences and symposia in the UK, Europe and North America.

Jim graduated from the University of London with a BSc in Zoology and an MSc degree in Applied Hydrobiology. As a Chartered Fellow of the Institute of Fisheries Management he is a Council member, Chair of the Specialist Section on Fish and its Environment and the Diploma Tutor for Fisheries Management. Beyond fisheries, he is Fellow of the Linnean Society of London.

Keith Williams obtained a degree in economics from Manchester Metropolitan University in 1991. Subsequently he worked for finance companies prior to a change in career direction. A project involving salmon smolts on the Conon catchment formed part of an MSc in Marine and Fisheries Science at Aberdeen University in 2001. A spell working as a water bailiff for the Cromarty Firth District Salmon Fishery Board followed, alongside undertaking a PhD looking at the role of nutrients in Conon salmon production in conjunction with Cardiff University.

Subsequent employment has included being appointed the senior biologist at the Ness & Beauly Fisheries Trust and the director of the Kyle of Sutherland Fishery Board and Trust. He currently chairs the Scottish branch of IFM.

Away from work, he enjoys fly fishing and following the fortunes of Manchester City football club and the Cornish Pirates rugby team.

I have loved boats, ponds, fish and fishing for as far back as I can remember. My uncle was a vet at Chester Zoo and I helped him in my youth, but then thought that fish were my first love.  I went to Liverpool University given their standing in freshwater fisheries. Restructuring at the time of my final year meant I went to the Isle of Man and did Marine Biology, focussing on flatfish!

I joined the water industry in 1976 first as a water quality officer in Derbyshire then as a senior fisheries bailiff in north London.  I spent the next nine years learning my craft of freshwater fisheries science, regulation and management. I moved to south London in 1985 and wondered why no one was conducting fish surveys on the tidal Thames, other than sampling the power station screens. By 1992 we had set up a biannual multimethod fish sampling programme at 6 sites down the estuary. Regarded nationally as something of an oddball, regional management allowed us to continue because we were actively using the data to influence several environmental management themes. In 2001, some early work for what became the Water Framework Directive noted that our survey programme was a unique example of European Best Practice in transitional waters for the WFD! Somewhat shell shocked, I became a national advisor promoting the uptake of our methodology and assisting area colleagues with development challenges in estuaries. At the same time, I started mucking about in saltmarshes and managed realignments.

I left the Environment Agency A in 2011 and set up our consultancy SC² with a colleague. Still working in the same fields and now recognised as a national expert in fish ecology and fisheries management in estuaries, fish ecology in saltmarshes and sturgeon.

I have been a keen member of the IFM since 1976. I have been the Branch Secretary of the London & S.E. Branch since 1994 and chair of the Estuarine and Marine Specialist Section since 2011. I am a Chartered Fellow of the Institute.

My other passions are boating and music. My wife and I met in 1972 at a Wishbone Ash concert- favourite track -Phoenix. Same name as our new canal boat.  Here crossing the Pontcysyllte aqueduct….. and I hate heights!!!!

Robert Rosell graduated from the University of Liverpool in 1983 with a BSc in Marine Biology.  He Completed a PhD on Culture of marine crustacea at the Liverpool Marine Biological station at Port Erin, Isle of Man, graduating in 1986.  He has since had a 35 year career as a Fisheries and Environmental Scientist with the Science Service of the Department of Agriculture for Northern Ireland , now the Agri-Food and Bio-Sciences Institute. He is currently Principal Scientific Officer leading a group of freshwater Fisheries scientists within AFBI advising Northern Ireland public authorities on management of commercial and recreational fisheries for salmon, eel and freshwater resident species.

He is a Fellow of the Institute and has been a member since 1987 and is current chair of its Ireland Branch.

Robert lives in Northern Ireland and is a keen Gardener, Naturalist and Angler. .

Marcus McAuley joined the then DANI (Department of Agriculture for Northern Ireland) as a fisheries officer in 1987 having graduated from Queen’s University, Belfast in Agriculture and Fisheries. This career path led to the post of Chief Fisheries Officer in 2006 with responsibility for salmon and inland fisheries conservation and protection, and angling development. Salmon and eel policy became the focus over the next period as NASCO developed its agreements and the EU responded to the crash in eel recruitment. Marcus has also worked in Forest Management and more recently as Strategy and Change Director with the Northern Ireland  Environment Agency.

Marcus joined the IFM in 1991 while working at Bushmills Salmon Station on salmon management with colleagues in the Agri-Food and Biosiences Institute (AFBI). Memories of the fairground faces emerging from the mist in the dark at a IFM conference in Somerset still haunt him!

Marcus lives in Northern Ireland spending time between Enniskillen and Holywood. Spare time is taken up with running (now jogging!), music, and a bit of coarse angling on the fabulous Erne.