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Annual Public Meeting
25 March 2014
TAY DISTRICT SALMON FISHERIES BOARD
OPEN MEETING - 25th MARCH 2014
FINANCE SUMMARY
BOARD INCOME (per audited accounts)
2009 2010 2011 2012
54.0% 61.0% 47.5% 47.5%
Assessment & Other Income (incl Tay
Foundation/SSE/Consultancy) 519,403 470,993 473,431 485,070
Revaluation Appeals/Bad debts -4,070 -823 -43,970 -17,428
Total Assessment & Other Income 515,333 470,170 429,461 467,642
0
50,000
100,000
150,000
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250,000
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350,000
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500,000
2009 2010 2011 2012
Tay District Salmon Fisheries Board Expenditure
Other
Depreciation
Subscriptions/Website/Projects
Rent & Rates, Heat & Light
Admin
Management/Research/Consultancy
Hatchery
Bailiffing
Review of main activities in the past year / forthcoming year
• Overview of catches 2013 / spring 2014 • Trial season extension. • Hatchery / Kelt Reconditioning Project • Rewatering the River Garry • Monitoring the health of the salmon population • Catch and release • Proposed River Tummel Project • Beavers, Summer Lunch and Auction 2013, Wild
Fisheries Review, Bailiffing.
Overview of catches 2013
Tay District, Reported Rod Catches, 1952 - 2013
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Spring 2013 beat catches, from www.fishtay.co.uk
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February - April
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Average
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Average temperature, eastern Scotland, March, 1910 - 2013
May 2013 beat catches, from www.fishtay.co.uk
0102030405060708090
100 May
2013
Average
June 2013 beat catches from www.fishtay.co.uk
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90 June
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Average
Monthly salmon catches by area, 2013
Fish Counter data
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Lochay FallsNovember
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Pitlochry Dam
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November
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Why might the River Tummel MSW salmon count have been so high in 2013?
Most clearly did not go up through the Clunie Dam fish counter into Loch Tummel
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Clunie Dam
Answers must therefore be sought in the accessible part of the Garry catchment (lower
Garry, Tilt and Errochty).
Why might the River Tummel MSW salmon count have been so high in 2013?
• Errochty and Tilt, mainly produce 3 year old smolts.
• Most of 2013’s MSW fish would have smolted in 2011, thus hatched in 2008, spawned in 2007. (Also some spawned in 2008).
• 2007 was a relatively poor spring run, however!
Electrofishing data – Errochty Water
Peak in 1 year old parr in 2009 at two sites
maybe gave a bigger smolt run in 2011?
Why might the River Tummel MSW salmon count have been so high in 2013?
• What about stocking? What effect did it have?
• In spring 2008, stocked 345,000 eggs / fry in Tilt and tribs, 375,000 upper Garry and 240,000 Errochty.
• Spring 2009, stocked 280,000 in Tilt and tribs, 80,000 Banvie Burn and 195,000 Errochty. None in Garry.
• Stocking will have made some contribution, but as Garry produces 2 year old smolts, the 2011 run came from a year when the Garry wasn’t stocked at all.
Why might the River Tummel MSW salmon count have been so high in 2013?
• Fish now returning as salmon rather than grilse? • There is precedent for this. • Next two slides show that from at least 1930s to
the 1950s, most of the salmon catch was taken in spring in the River Tay. Grilse exploded from early 1960s.
• 3rd slide, netting catches, Berwick Salmon Fisheries, River Tweed, 1840 -1987, shows there was a well known period of high spring salmon / low grilse abundance period, 1920s – 1950s.
Tay District monthly rod catches of salmon and grilse
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October
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Trial Season Extension
• Licence obtained for three year trial, started in 2011, but an extra year (2014) was provided in standby.
• Only applies mainstem Tay, Perth to Dalguise. • 16 October – 31 October. • 100% catch and release. Detailed records of catches made. • Over the three year period, 1/3 of income generated to be
donated to Tay Foundation. • Was originally agreed that at end of three years, Board
would pull together all results and put to all proprietors (including consideration of season start date).
• Because 2011 letting so poor, was agreed at AGM would continue for one more final year (2014).
Trial Season Extension
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2013
Trial Season Extension - catches
Trial Season Extension
Trial Season Extension
Trial Season Extension
Scale reading results, 2013
Trial Season Extension
• Significant income for Tay Foundation.
• Next steps.
Hatchery / Kelt Reconditioning Project
Kelt Reconditioning Project
• Process by which adult salmon kelts, which otherwise would die, are held in captivity, fed and kept alive for years, producing eggs repeatedly over a number of seasons.
• Project developed by Marine Scotland Science at Almondbank. Collaborative project with the Board since early 1990s.
• Proved to be valuable in generating eggs from fragile spring salmon populations. Was producing up to 750,000 eggs by end 2000s.
• MSS decided to close the facility in April 2011. • Board decided to try and save the facility.
Kelt Reconditioning Project
• Given licence to occupy from Marine Scotland from April – December 2011.
• Currently in process of negotiating a 10 year lease, with potential breakpoint(s). Will be backdated to January 2012.
Kelt Reconditioning Project
• Seeking to increase production from 750,000 spring salmon eggs to 1,500,000
• To be used for restarting lost populations of scarcest sub stocks. E.g. River Garry
• Central part of rationalised hatchery strategy. Reduced requirement to remove broodstock from wild.
Kelt Reconditioning Project
• We have now moved our entire operation, including offices, into the new premises and are looking to lease out existing premises.
• Now have a dedicated meeting room and meeting facilities.
Fry rearing trials
• We have retained some parr / smolt rearing tanks in the new facility. Has given us the ability to conduct trials comparing survival of fed-on parr in the autumn with eyed ova / unfed fry.
Value of Kelt Reconditioning
• By having access to eggs from reconditioning eggs from local origin fish, we have been able to demonstrate that the upper River Lochay used to be under-populated with salmon.
4 electrofishing sites above Kenknock Falls
Years prior to stocking, low densities of salmon parr
Green bars, years when stocking took place. Blue bars, no stocking took place to allow monitoring of effect of
fish pass improvements
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Kenknock Island Badour Batavaime
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1+ salmon parr 2001
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“At a point” work
• Obstructions
Rewatering the River Garry
EU Water Framework Directive (came into force in 2000)
• Waterbodies damaged by historic hydro abstractions to be restored to Good Ecological Potential
• 2006 – informal proposal from SSE / SEPA • 2007 – we objected – not enough water • 2010 - SSE made formal application to SEPA. Bit
more water than before. • We objected but assured by SSE of changes if
SEPA agreed • 2014 – still waiting on SEPA............!
Original Proposal – Q90 flow from Garry Intake but none from side tributaries
2010 Proposal – an additional Q95 flow from one accessible trib and 200 l/s in the inaccessible Bruar Water which does not benefit the main stem Garry either.
A more realistic flow based on the Low Flows software (Wallingford Hydrosolutions) estimates for all abstracted tribs gave even higher combined flows. Hence our objection to the 2010 proposals.
In addition, freshets are required to help salmon ascend small falls. Guidance on this subject was only completed by the UK Technical Advisory Group in December 2013.
However, earlier this year, after trying to improve the accuracy of software generated flow estimates using local calibration data, SEPA proposed these baseflows.
We have contested the “analogue” sites used for calibration. The Low Flows 2 software actually gives a lower flow estimate for the neighbouring River Tilt than does real gauging data. We now hear that the proposed flows might now be even higher as a result.
Salmon fry from reconditioned kelts of close origin are stocked into what flow there is, in advance of flow restoration.
Monitoring the health of the salmon stock
Shochie Burn Fish Counter
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Up counts
Down count
Net up count
Electrofishing surveys are main method of monitoring juvenile populations
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etre
Densities of juvenile salmon of different ages, Auchnafree, River Almond
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Generally speaking, most electrofishing suveys in unobstructed rivers seem to have relatively stable long term average numbers
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Densities of juvenile salmon of different ages, Lunan Water, Lochbank.
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r sq
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Ordie Burn, JackstoneSalmon 0+
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De
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Densities of juvenile salmon, Shochie Burn, Shenval
Fry
Parr
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Lyon, Kenknock
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reLyon, Stronuich Ford
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Densities of juvenile salmon, Fillan Water, Kirkton
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Catch and release
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Spring salmon killed
Spring salmon released
Reported numbers of spring salmon killed and released by anglers in major east coast rivers, 2012.
Percentages of salmon killed in different parts of the Tay district, 2012
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Pe
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Jan - April
May - Oct
Proposed River Tummel salmon smolt tagging project
Fish barriers
Beavers
Summer Lunch and Auction
Wild Fisheries Review
Bailiffing
