Lifeline for nature

Restocking the rivers

Among the projects awarded funds this year, Tighnabruaich-based Otter Ferry Seafish has been granted £39,134 to continue its live salmon gene bank, rearing wild salmon parr to adulthood and supporting future restocking.

 

Run with Argyll Fisheries Trust and the River Ruel Improvement Association, the project aims to boost regional rivers and serve as a model for a national network of “genetic insurance” banks.

 

Alastair Barge, Managing Director of Otter Ferry Seafish, said: “We welcome the continuation of funding for this exciting project. It continues to create a very important forum for the interaction between the wild fisheries and the farmed industry.”

 

Alan Kettle-White, Senior Biologist with the Argyll Fisheries Trust, added: “We will be supporting the project with monitoring of the wild salmon population in the River Ruel through electrofishing, redd count surveys [redds are the nests made by salmon and trout in river beds to lay their eggs], and collecting genetic information which will help us to evaluate the progress of the initiative.”

 

A separate project on the River Ruel is also receiving £10,000 to reduce fine sediment and improve spawning and juvenile salmon habitat, marking the fourth consecutive year of support.

 

Earlier riverbank repairs using natural materials, trees and woody debris created shelter for fish, while fencing and new vegetation provide shade to keep the water cool and healthy for young salmon.

 

Andrew Barker, of the River Ruel Improvement Association, said: “This funding reflects the hope that the Ruel/Otter Ferry Seafish project, combined with continual habitat improvement, will prove to be a blueprint for other west coast rivers to follow for the benefit of the endangered Scottish wild salmon population.”

 

Further up the coast, four rivers in Lochaber will be the subject of a genetic screening project. £11,600 will be awarded to Lochaber Fisheries Trust and UHI Inverness to sample juvenile salmon in the Loy, Roy, Nevis and Shiel rivers to guide potential restocking.

 

In the same area, the Lochaber Live Salmon Gene Bank at Drimsallie Hatchery will receive £72,000 to rear wild parr to adulthood from eight rivers, preserving genetic diversity and supporting future restocking.

 

Even further north in Wester Ross, £10,000 is being awarded to the River Carron Conservation Association, led by Bob Kindness, to track how conservation stocking contributes to returning adult fish.

 

Kindness told us: “The Conservation Stocking Programme was established on the River Carron in response to a dramatic and almost complete collapse of the salmon population in the 1990s. 

 

“A captive broodstock was produced based on native stocks taken from the river enabling large numbers of eggs and subsequent fry to be generated for stocking. 

 

“The result was that a significant number of adult fish returned to the river as demonstrated by the rod catch. The increase in numbers correlated exactly with the stocking effort. Catches rose to historically high levels.

 

“Although it seemed clear that the recovery of the salmon stock was due to the stocking programme, it was necessary to assess the success scientifically by using DNA. 

 

“From 2011, tissue samples in the form of small fin clips were taken from all the broodstock used in the programme and also from a sample of smolts leaving the river from a rotary screw trap and returning adults in the rod catch. 

 

“Analysis of the DNA of returning adults showed that up to 50% of rod caught fish in some years were stocked fish.

 

“The recent funding from the Wild Fisheries Fund is allowing the DNA analysis to be done on the smolt samples that would have corresponded to the adult returners for which we already know the DNA. 

 

“It will then be possible to evaluate the proportion of stocked fish in the smolt run and compare it with that of the returning adults.”

Green engineering

Among the river restoration projects, £17,541 is going to the River Doon District Salmon Fishery Board and Ayrshire Rivers Trust to stabilise banks, plant 1,000 native trees, install fencing and reduce silt in key spawning areas.

 

Ayrshire Rivers Trust’s Fisheries Biologist Struan Candlish says: “Utilising green engineering techniques in concert with riparian tree planting, we will protect key spawning grounds, and help keep the River Doon cold and clean by reducing the erosion of alluvial soils from riverbanks, by enhancing bank stability at critical locations and providing shade as a result of planned tree planting. 

 

“The bank erosion is acute in areas where high banks and rich alluvial soils can be mobilised in large volumes by the river. There are several problem erosion areas across this middle section of the River Doon, which are intensified beyond natural levels due to historic grazing and tree removal associated with historic land management practices. 

 

“Whilst these damaging practices are greatly reduced and the new committee of the angling club are proactive and willing to see and make improvements across their beats, this won’t happen quickly if left to happen naturally due to the low potential for seed production in this barren area. 

 

“As such, tree planting is a crucial element of this project, and all trees would be staked and guarded to protect them from grazing animals and enhance their initial growth rate.

 

“We have yet to deliver any on the ground aspects of this project, although we will be planting trees over this coming winter with engineering works to follow in the spring of next year.”

 

As another legacy, the project aims to “upskill local people in how to best manage and solve erosion issues and protect valuable habitats”, and “raise awareness of the threat of rising water temperatures to fish populations and how best to address this”.

 

Three other restoration projects will also benefit from funding. £30,625 has been given to the Loch Lomond Fisheries Trust for riverbank restoration in Glen Fruin, planting 1,500 native trees, removing invasive species and improving fish passage.

 

Meanwhile, £8,485 has been granted to Wester Ross Fisheries Trust to repair the Tournaig smolt trap and fish pass, and continue long-term monitoring of salmon and sea trout migration.

 

Out west, on the River Creed in the Isle of Lewis, £25,000 has been awarded to the Stornoway Angling Association to repair a key holding dam, securing water flow, and protecting salmon and sea trout stocks.

 

The tenth project this year, on the River Urr, aims to protect native salmon and other wildlife from invasive mink predators. £9,547 has been gifted to Urr District Salmon Fishery Board for invasive mink predator-trapping equipment and staff training, protecting native salmon and other wildlife such as voles, hedgehogs and ground-nesting birds.

 

The River Urr is a small river in Dumfries and Galloway which was known for good catch numbers in the past, and in particular large “greybacks”, multi sea-winter salmon which ran the river late in the season. 

 

The fund’s website explains: “Like many rivers, the fish numbers have dropped alarmingly over the last few decades and the Urr District Salmon Fisheries Board has been doing what it can, with very limited funding, to help improve the river and salmon numbers including riparian planting, peatland restoration, non-native species eradication, etc.

 

“One of the key issues facing the salmon population is predation and there is known to be a local mink population originating from a release of mink some years ago from a local mink farm in Dalbeattie. 

 

“The exact extend of the problem is unknown and whilst the population seems most concentrated in the lower reaches, the Urr District Salmon Fishery Board intend to trap across as much of the river system as they can cover.

 

“The project was successful in achieving a grant for trapping equipment and staff training from the Wild Fisheries Fund - without which there would not have been adequate funds available to do the work. 

 

“Riparian owners, anglers and the local fisheries trust (Galloway Fisheries Trust) are all engaged in the project and it is hoped that this coordinated and intensive effort will help address this key issue of mink predation in the Urr catchment.”

 

Convener Martin Emkes added: “We don’t currently know the extent of the problem on the Urr but there is definitely an issue as there are quite regular sightings – particularly in the lower reaches of the Urr, where the mink were released from a farm in the 1980s.

 

“We are in the process of gathering equipment and have so far received traps and mink rafts but there has been a delay in supply of Remoti devices which notify the user when the trap has been triggered. 

 

“These should be delivered in early November and we have a meeting with a dozen or so volunteers from up and down the Urr catchment area on 16 November for training so trapping will start immediately thereafter.

 

“We have also established contact with the Waterlife Recovery project who are working in conjunction with Cambridge University to endeavour to eradicate American mink throughout the UK. Cambridge University will perform DNA analysis and the Waterlife Recovery Trust are providing us with technical assistance and lure scent. 

 

“They are very happy to have a new project underway in south-west Scotland having apparently eradicated mink from East Anglia and have only one or two other projects underway in the Highlands.”

 

Jon Gibb concludes: “It’s inspiring to see local groups, trusts and fisheries working together to safeguard these species and demonstrate how community-led conservation can make a real difference.”

 

Salmon Scotland’s Wild Fisheries Fund is scheduled to reopen to new applications in spring 2026. More details are available at www.wildfisheriesfund.co.uk