A beat, a river and a vital conservation project
This week saw the last of 100 smolts tagged on the Spey as part of a wide-ranging tracking project on the Moray Firth headed up by the Atlantic Salmon Trust as part of the Missing Salmon Alliance.
Smolt in the Avon
The project rivers trace the curve of the Moray Firth, from the Shin and Oykel in the Kyle of Sutherland to the Deveron in Aberdeenshire, encompassing the Conon, Spey, Ness and Findhorn.
River Boards and Trusts on each of the rivers are engaged in tagging smolts, the young salmon ready to set off on their miraculous journey along the river courses and into the Moray Firth and the Atlantic Ocean beyond. Teams of river Board staff and volunteers deployed equipment into the water earlier this month; including rotary screw traps to temporarily catch the fish and acoustic receivers, which collect ‘pings’ from the tagged smolts on their journey out to sea.
This is the second year of the Moray Firth Tracking Project, which saw 100 smolts tagged on the Spey in 2019. Spey Fishery Senior Biologist, Brian Shaw, is involved on a daily basis with the project, marshalling a team of staff and volunteers to make sure the information gathered is the best it can be.
Brian Shaw, Spey Fishery Senior Biologist
“The smolt migration process is an important stage of a salmon’s life cycle. New tracking technology now allows us to monitor this part of the salmon’s journey from fresh to salt water. This gives us a valuable insight into potential bottlenecks along the migration route and the speed at which smolts navigate downstream.
One of our key smolt trapping areas is on the River Avon – the Spey’s largest tributary. Here, salmon can spawn at an altitude of 600m – smolts from here have the steepest descent of any river in the UK.”
Even mighty rivers are the sum of their parts, and one of the fishing beats on the Spey is at The Macallan Estate, a world-leading hospitality destination and home to every bottle of The Macallan’s single-malt whisky since 1824. The river running through the 485-acre estate is presided over by Ghillie Robert Mitchell, whose enthusiasm for the river and the fish that it is renowned for is hard to beat. Robert’s favourite time of year is ‘May on the Spey’ when nature comes alive on the river.
Robert Mitchell
“I’ve always been fascinated by salmon, ever since I caught my first fish with a worm on the River Lossie. I knew I wanted to work as close to the river and these magnificent fish as possible and, as a ghillie, I get the excitement of watching them swimming by me up the river to spawn.
Here at The Macallan Estate, we take our role as guardians of our very own stretch of the legendary River Spey seriously, and we are working with the Atlantic Salmon Trust to find out what’s happening to the salmon on their journey to the ocean. Our partnership is based on a shared spirit of sustainability and community as together we care for the extraordinary river and its natural surroundings, and we look forward to seeing the results and gaining a better understanding of the work we can do to preserve these fish as they journey through our Estate.”
As an Alliance of five organisations, we will build on the existing work of our partners and maximise our impact by taking a coordinated approach and vital action in order to halt and reverse the decline of wild Atlantic salmon.
The goal of the Missing Salmon Alliance is to build an evidence-base to influence national and international decision-makers to regulate activities that adversely impact wild Atlantic salmon.
The Missing Salmon Alliance
The MSA is comprised of the following members:
Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust, Atlantic Salmon Trust, the Angling Trust with Fish Legal, The Rivers Trust and Fisheries Management Scotland.
https://www.missingsalmonalliance.org