Ailments, injuries and enemies of the long lived and long suffering Mullet.

I've recently been asked by several folk, passing by the Mullet at the Winterbourne stream sluice gate in Railway Land Nature reserve, about the ailments and injuries that have.

So, I have put together a small movie made up of still shots that I have taken, to show you what they suffer from.

The first shot is an injury to the tail of one fish that was probably caused by a Seal but could also have been a failed attempt by a Pike. The second photo is of a fish that I studied from the day it was injured. It had a massive injury that has miraculously healed in four weeks by bathing in the cool spring water coming under the sluice gate.

Although this injury looks like it could only have been a Seal bite, it could well have been a Mink. The third shot is a very lucky one I got of an albino Mink. These ferocious creatures typically grab a big fish by the 'wrist' of the tail as their jaws are small, unlike the Seals that are capable of grabbing the whole fish as in forth shot. ( Sorry about the poor quality but I took those two photos very hurriedly with an old Iphone in 2016 while the BBC Springwatch team were photographing me.)

The fifth shot is of a Lamprey attached to a Mullet. These creatures are ancient fish that usually don't stay on their host long enough to kill them and they too can be dealt with in the magical spring water.

The sixth shot shows two fish and three ailments. Firstly the fish on top; it has some type of seaweed growing out of it's left side gill cover. Most unusual here although many fish suffer from this in the Isles of Scilly but all is put right after about two weeks in fresh water. The fish to the bottom in this shot has two types of fungal infections or perhaps two stages of just one type? The lesser a white mottled pattern and the greater a bulbous yellow/orange growth.The seventh shot another fish with just the white form.

The last shot is an almost attractive white spotted pattern on tail and fins that does appear to be an infection of some sort as this too is illuminated with a month or so in the 'Spa' as I call it.

I hope you find this informative and if there is anyone out there who can fill in some of the missing pieces of this puzzle then please do get it touch, Steve