INNOVATIVE SALMON PROGRAMME BREATHES NEW LIFE INTO HIGHLAND RIVER

A Highland river whose salmon population was once all but wiped out has enjoyed a record-breaking fishing season thanks to a restoration and management programme pioneered at Inverness College UHI. 

Experts at the college’s Seafield Centre have monitored salmon numbers in the River Carron, one of the largest rivers in the West Highlands, for the last decade after salmon numbers dropped to alarming levels, reaching an all-time low in 2001 when only 6 fish were caught. As part of the restoration plan, the Seafield Centre pioneered a new stocking system by taking eggs from wild salmon and rearing the resultant offspring to full maturity to increase the potential egg production, as opposed to the traditional method of stocking the river with juveniles produced directly from wild salmon. The river has been re-stocked with over 1 million salmon at various stages since 2001 and a ‘catch and release’ policy has been operating, where all rod-caught salmon are returned to the river to maximise the level of natural spawning. Numbers of salmon caught steadily increased year on year, reaching record-breaking levels this year, with 262 catches reported – the highest total ever recorded for the river. As a result of its bumper stocks, anglers are becoming increasingly attracted to the river, bringing financial benefits to the local community. The increase in young fish in the river has also helped improve its biodiversity to the point that it has been described as the richest river in terms of species diversity in the West Highlands.
 
This year’s salmon season came to an end last month, but the programme will continue to monitor the total number of adult salmon returning to the river. Bob Kindness, Lecturer in Freshwater Fisheries Research at Inverness College UHI, said: “The level of recovery has been as dramatic as the initial decline and has exceeded all expectations. Such an increase in catches has not been in evidence for any other river in the West Highlands and we can only put this down to the stocking programme. The results to date demonstrate a way forward for fisheries that have suffered in the same way as the Carron. This could offer huge benefits to rivers and the Highlands in general, by bringing angling back to areas where it was once a vital source of income.”

Inverness College’s Seafield Centre is based in Kishorn in Wester Ross and offers SVQ courses in Aquaculture and Fisheries Management through Inverness College UHI. It is also a centre for research in the rearing and release of salmon and trout. For more information on Inverness College UHI and the Seafield Centre, please visit www.inverness.uhi.ac.uk or www.seafieldcentre.co.uk

Rod catches in the River Carron rose slightly in 2002, to 19 salmon, and 2003, when 40 salmon were caught, but the real difference came in 2004 when 141 salmon were caught, which coincided with a dramatic increase in re-stocking. Since then, catches have risen dramatically each year: 166 in 2005, 200 in 2006 and 262 in 2007.

A record-breaking 32lb salmon was caught in the River Carron in 2007, breaking the previous record by 4lbs.