Projects

To continue the long-term programme supporting salmon populations across eight rivers.

Research into whether rearing wild salmon smolts to adulthood could help conserve threatened populations.

The project uses wild salmon from the River Ruel to establish a living gene bank, with fish reared to adulthood in controlled conditions to help conserve the river’s threatened salmon population.

The River Eachaig Fishery Syndicate has been awarded £10,000 from Salmon Scotland’s wild fisheries fund for further work to tackle riverbank erosion and improve habitat for salmon and trout.

Lochaber Fisheries Trust has been awarded £5,280 from Salmon Scotland's Wild Fisheries Fund to continue important genetic monitoring work on wild salmon populations in two west coast rivers.

Loch Lomond Fisheries Trust has been awarded £17,361 from Salmon Scotland’s Wild Fisheries Fund for further habitat restoration work at Glen Fruin, one of the most important spawning tributaries feeding Loch Lomond.

Ayrshire Rivers Trust has been awarded £31,500 from Salmon Scotland's Wild Fisheries Fund to deliver a major habitat protection project on the River Ayr.

The Galloway Fisheries Trust has been awarded funding to deliver habitat restoration work on two tributaries of the River Bladnoch, helping improve conditions for wild salmon and other species.

Stornoway Angling Association has been awarded £18,600 from Salmon Scotland’s Wild Fisheries Fund for further conservation work on the River Creed in Lewis.

A full-scale analysis of the impact of stocking on the River Carron.

The Lochaber Gene Bank is a long-term project to protect the genetic integrity of the individual salmon stocks of 8 key rivers in the Lochaber region.

As the current leaseholders of the fishing on the River Creed on the Isle of Lewis, the Stornoway Angling Association (SAA) were delighted to receive financial support from the Wild Fisheries Fund for the repair of a crucial holding dam.

Led by the Loch Lomond Fisheries Trust (LLFT), this ambitious habitat restoration project in Glen Fruin aims to protect one of the last viable salmon refuges in the Loch Lomond catchment.

The River Urr is a small river in Dumfries and Galloway which was known for good catch numbers in the past and in particular large “greybacks”, multi sea-winter salmon which ran the river late in the season.

With support from Salmon Scotland’s Wild Fisheries Fund, the River Ruel Improvement Association, Otter Ferry Seafish and Argyll Fisheries Trust are undertaking a pioneering project to set up a living gene bank for a small, threatened population of Atlantic Salmon on the West Coast of Scotland.

Further research on the stocking methods and successes on the River Carron in Wester Ross (undertaken by Bob Kindness) is planned for 2025.

Salmon Scotland’s Wild Fisheries Fund is supporting the River Ruel Improvement Association’s work to improve spawning and juvenile fish habitat on this west coast spate river.

Utilising green engineering techniques in concert with riparian tree planting the Doon DSFB and Ayrshire Rivers Trust will protect key spawning grounds on the River Doon.

Due to large-scale declines in salmon populations across the Lochaber region, many rivers are looking for solutions to halt the decline and help their salmon fisheries.

The Tournaig trap in Wester Ross has been operating to monitor wild salmon and sea trout entering and leaving the little Tournaig River system by Loch Ewe since 1999.

To start a live wild salmon gene bank in the Argyll region (Otterferry Seafish) with a trial using fish from the River Ruel.

To mitigate against widespread acidity problems in the River Bladnoch catchment using novel techniques.

To build on the ongoing and widespread habitat improvement project on the River Eachaig in Argyll.

To improve the habitat on this small but important Hebridean system.