Jon Bolland

Trustee since 2021

Born in Boston, Jon grew up fishing Lincolnshire rivers and drains where bream and roach thrive. Grayling was a fish that dreams were made of, although he finally caught one grayling from the Welsh Dee a few years ago. His involvement in the GRT stems from a general love of rivers and fish which extends into his every day, researching the spatial ecology of freshwater and diadromous fishes at The University of Hull. Fishing trips nowadays typically involve taking his three young daughters to the village pond.

He specialises in the spatial ecology of freshwater and diadromous fishes in a range of aquatic environments using telemetry, sonar and eDNA techniques at the University of Hull (Hull International Fisheries Institute; HIFI).

He studies the impact of anthropogenic activities on fish migration, including low head weirs, fish passage solutions, pumping stations, hydropower schemes and reservoir compensation flow releases. For example, he leads the REsearch and Development of fish and Eel Entrainment Mitigation at pumping stations (REDEEM) project, investigating the spatial distribution of fish and eels in pumped catchments, the processes that lead to entrainment, the effectiveness of existing technologies and develop innovative approaches to minimise entrainment and provide safe downstream passage.

He has also led investigations into catchment-wide migration of upstream-migrating adult sea lamprey and river lamprey, twaite shad, salmonids and cyprinids.