The Ness and Beauly District Salmon Fishery Boards announce an extension to a key salmon conservation measure in the Inverness Firth.
The two largest ‘net and coble’ operators in the Ness District have agreed to keep their operations closed for a third season in a row through to May 2016.
Chris Conroy, Director of the Ness board, said: “In recent years we have seen a marked decline in the numbers of adult salmon returning to our coastal waters and rivers. It is therefore vitally important that measures such as this are put in place to ensure that as many of these fish as possible are able to complete their journey and go on to spawn successfully.
“Our netting conservation agreement has meant that no salmon have been taken by netsmen operating in coastal areas of the Ness District since 2012, when a total of 542 fish were reported by the nets. This extension will mean that salmon have free passage through the Inverness Firth and into our rivers for a third year in a row.”
As part of last year’s agreement, the Ness Board and teams from the Kincurdie and Longman netting stations came together with the Ness and Beauly Fisheries Trust to capture, tag and release fish to further our understanding of salmon and sea trout movements within the firth. It is hoped that a similar operation will be repeated again this year.
Ness and Beauly Fisheries Trust staff recording the details of a salmon captured during last year’s joint netting operation
Mr Conroy explained that the board’s conservation efforts are not only confined to the net fishery and coastal areas: “Voluntary conservation measures introduced by the Ness board, in partnership with anglers across the Ness system, have resulted in a significant improvement in the overall rod and line release rates.
“In 1997 only four per cent of all fish caught were released. By 2004 this increased to 28 per cent and it has risen virtually every year since. The 87 per cent overall release rate recorded in 2014 was the highest on record, as was the 99 per cent ‘spring’ release rate.
“Further to this, our salmon tagging programme has indicated that, once released, these fish can and do go on to make a full and rapid recovery. Tagged salmon have been recorded passing through the SSE fish counter on Dundreggan Dam on the River Moriston, with a number of recaptures of tagged fish also recorded on Loch Ness this year”.
A salmon passing through the fish counter in Dundreggan Dam on the River Moriston ( a tag is clearly visible indicating that it had previous been caught and released by an angler and made a full recovery)
The Ness District Salmon Fishery Board would like to thank netsmen and anglers for their co-operation.