The Moray Firth Tracking Project
It’s time to solve the mystery of our missing salmon.
The objective of the Moray Firth Tracking Project is to take a whole region of salmon rivers, around the Moray Firth, and study the smolt migration to understand reasons for salmon mortality, from the headwaters through the main stem, the estuary and up to 120km out to sea, and to understand what we can do to mitigate mortality. This includes understanding the smolts dispersal patterns in the coastal zone of their migration.
The Moray Firth Tracking Project
The Moray Firth Tracking Project is a key element of the Missing Salmon Alliance’s work, providing valuable information to help understand smolt migration routes, and to identify the threats they face on their journey to sea. When launched in Spring 2019, the Moray Firth Tracking Project was the largest, most ambitious acoustic tracking project to ever be undertaken in Europe.
Taking place in the Moray Firth – the route taken by 20% of all salmon that leave the UK – this ground-breaking project will last 3 years and will aim to:
Recognise the migration pathways of this iconic species.
Identify the “Likely Suspects” contributing to their decline.
Understand how to improve their chances of returning safely to our rivers, both in the Moray Firth and beyond.
The Moray Firth Tracking Project Timeline
Year 1 – 2019: Evidence was gathered across the region and in the coastal zone. This information provides an understanding of the migration patterns of our young salmon smolts as they head out to sea.
Year 2 – 2021: Year 1 results showed that 50% of our smolts went missing in action. We will be focusing our attention in this environment to understand why this happened and, more importantly, what can be done to better protect them.
Year 3 – 2022: Information gathered from years 1 & 2 will help us in working with policy makers to trial management techniques in areas identified from the research. From here we can then inform and establish evidence-based management practices to make a difference.
Novel Technology:
Using acoustic telemetry technology, the Atlantic Salmon Trust will be able to track the smolts’ journey to sea and identify at what specifics points in their journey are they going missing. From this information, plans can be devised using a number of approaches and new techniques to understand why this is happening.
Where does this information go?
The findings from the Moray Firth Tracking Project all feed into a cutting-edge and evidence-based tool: The Likely Suspects Framework. By providing evidence-based research, this information can help inform river managers and policy-makers on how to better protect this iconic species and contribute to creating a future where our salmon can thrive.
Watch Atlantic Salmon Trust’s brand new short film that documents the ground-breaking work carried out in Spring 2021 for Year 2 of the Moray Firth Tracking Project.
