Tay Rivers Trust Fundraising 2022/23 Smolts & Juvenile Population
Boosting egg and juvenile production in the Summerhill Hatchery and improving survival rates of juveniles in the Tay Catchment
The Tay Rivers Trust are aiming to raise funds through fundraising to add to those resources obtained through the Tay proprietors annual levy.
Please support us and help save wild Atlantic salmon
Calum Innes,
Chairman, Tay Rivers Trust
Smolts & Juvenile Population
Kelt reconditioning at the Summerhill Hatchery is a ground breaking project, unique in the UK and the largest initiative in the Tay catchment. One million spring salmon eggs have been produced each year which has allowed stocking in areas where the salmon population requires restoration.
Summerhill Hatchery, Gene Bank – Living gene and frozen gene bank to preserve Atlantic salmon genotypes in case of requirement to restore populations after collapse e.g. Gyrodactylus. This includes both captive populations with our kelt reconditioning and potentially cryopreservation of milt. This is of value to the Tay and nationally.
Smolt Tagging – to get a better understanding of the return from smolts – There are concerns that the apparent return rates of PIT tagged salmon to the River Tummel may not be representative of nature. The River Tummel could not produce the numbers of adult salmon observed going through the fish counter if marine survival rates really are only of the order of 2%. One possibility is that extra mortality occurs either directly or indirectly as a result of PIT tagging. This issue needs to be cleared up before we proceed further.
If a PIT tag detector could be installed in the lower Errochty Water, migrant smolts that were tagged upstream as parr would form a control against other smolts trapped and tagged in spring in the usual way. The first trial requires a minimum 1,000 parr to be tagged.
Juvenile Fish Populations – Little is known about the populations of juvenile salmon and other fish that live in rivers that are too deep to be electrofished. We wish to assess juvenile populations using a fine meshed sweep net to provide an index of fish abundance (salmon, grayling and trout being main species expected) from year to year. This method would be applicable to the Earn and the lower Isla.
River Lyon – The growth rate of juvenile salmon is among the lowest in the Tay district and poor growth conditions appear to be a major controlling factor of the upper Lyon salmon population. The river is maintained by a “compensation” flow from the base of reservoirs which gives it an unnatural temperature regime and limited sampling showed the main river’s chemistry can differ from that of burns flowing into the Loch Lyon reservoir.
While it might not be practical to change temperature, water chemistry might be more amenable to improvement. This project seeks to identify chemical change throughout the seasons and under different levels of natural runoff with, initially, the installation of automatic continuous loggers to record pH and electrical conductivity.
If you wish to discuss making a significant gift to make a strategic impact to atlantic salmon in the Tay river catchment please contact our Major Gifts Fundraiser, here.
TAY RIVERS TRUST 2022/23 Fundraising
- Smolts & Juvenile Population
- Habitat Restoration
- Invasive Species
- Salmon in the Classroom