Lochaber Fisheries Trust has been awarded £72,800 from Salmon Scotland's Wild Fisheries Fund to continue the Lochaber Live Salmon Gene Bank project, a long-term conservation programme protecting the genetic diversity of wild salmon populations across eight rivers in the Lochaber region.
The project provides an important genetic insurance policy for vulnerable salmon populations, helping safeguard the unique characteristics of individual river stocks should future conservation stocking become necessary. The initiative mirrors successful live salmon gene bank programmes already operating in countries including Norway and Canada.
Wild juvenile salmon are collected from donor rivers and reared to adulthood at Drimsallie Hatchery near Glenfinnan, using specialist husbandry techniques and targeted diets. Each river's stock is kept separate throughout the process, helping preserve the genetic integrity of individual populations. The hatchery now holds one of the largest wild adult salmon captive-rearing facilities in the UK.
Alongside the hatchery programme, Lochaber Fisheries Trust and UHI Inverness undertake genetic monitoring of juvenile salmon in the rivers to assess the size and health of wild spawning populations. This information helps determine whether intervention is required and, if so, whether support should be provided through stocked eggs or by releasing mature fish from the gene bank during the spawning season.
The project forms a key part of efforts to conserve and restore wild Atlantic salmon populations in the west Highlands, providing valuable scientific information while protecting the genetic diversity of some of Scotland's most important salmon rivers.
It is one of nine conservation projects across Scotland sharing almost £230,000 from the fund this year. Since its launch in 2021, the Wild Fisheries Fund has delivered £1.5 million for practical conservation and restoration work, supporting 30 local projects across Scotland. Salmon farmers have now committed a further £460,000 over the next two years, taking total investment through the fund since 2021 to £1.96 million.
