Grant recipient: Wester Ross Fisheries Trust

Project Duration: November 2024 to October 2025

The continuing decline in the number of adult salmon returning to rivers to spawn has reduced river nutrient levels through the drop in ‘surplus’ salmon eggs & decomposing adult salmon carcasses.

The lower river nutrient levels, combined with rising water temperatures, contributes to fish malnutrition.  This in turn leads to lower ocean survival & a vicious circle of further reductions in the number of returning adult salmon.

This project aims to reverse the downward spiral of nutrient depletion & declining salmon numbers by placing ‘salmon carcass analogue pellets’ into the river beds to support juvenile salmon growth.  Juvenile fish & aquatic invertebrates will be surveyed to assess outcomes & to assess stream health.

This grant is towards the costs for staff & the pellets for the project.

Update: November 2024

It’s early on in the project but fantastic progress has already been made, securing access permissions and obtaining the ‘salmon carcass analogue pellets’ from a local supplier. Baseline surveys of juvenile fish and aquatic invertebrates are also underway.

Watch this space for more updates as the project progresses.

Images from juvenile fish baseline surveys in Autumn 2024. Note that all the fish in the photos were lightly sedated in fish anaesthetic then returned to streams after recovery.