[Ivor Duffus]

That’s a staggering amount of cash they have successfully raised over the last 10 years.

And I just read the Dee caught 1678 Salmon and Grilse this season. The worst total ever 😲.  Despite all their efforts and cash handouts the Dee is still on the downward slope. Not so long ago 1678 would have been considered a average year on the Don.


As bad as the Dee is I think the Tweed has the biggest decline in Salmon catches in Scotland. The Tay and  Spey also in decline but possibly helped by the hatcheries.


The percentage of decline on the Dee and Don are now fairly similar despite the millions spent on the Dee. That said it would be nice if the Don was awarded £233,000.

I can’t see how awarding all the cash to the big 4 rivers is going to help a Salmon recovery in Scotland. Just my tuppence worth but I think major cash investment in the poorest performing Cat 2 and 3 would be more beneficial. Surely trying to get more salmon returning to all rivers is better than trying to get more salmon Back to only 4 🤷🏻‍♂️


It’s a tricky situation with big 4 rivers having full time employees lobbying for the cash handouts 💰 💰💰💰

[James Laraway]

I'd argue the 'big 4' are probably the rivers that LEAST need extra money as they most of the beats are probably owned by big and well off land owners who it could be argued could dip into their own pockets......
Unfortunately, as ever, its the best resourced rivers that have the staff who know how to successfully apply for grants so all that happens is the money goes to the same recipients again and again.

If they want to protect salmon in the dee stop the fishing at the end of Aug .

I've heard several people mention teams of 'crack' scandi anglers taking over beats on the Dee in sept and oct racking up big numbers of coloured fish......

[Steven Sinclair]

I'd argue the 'big 4' are probably the rivers that LEAST need extra money as they most of the beats are probably owned by big and well off land owners who it could be argued could dip into their own pockets......
Unfortunately, as ever, its the best resourced rivers that have the staff who know how to successfully apply for grants so all that happens is the money goes to the same recipients again and again.

If they want to protect salmon in the dee stop the fishing at the end of Aug .

I've heard several people mention teams of 'crack' scandi anglers taking over beats on the Dee in sept and oct racking up big numbers of coloured fish......

Agreed. If they reversed the ruling on the extension it would also show just how dire things are. There's a good number caught in this extra week's that shouldn't really be counted as a seasons average when they've moved the goalposts.

[Mike Barrio]

Project Deveron : https://atlanticsalmontrust.org/project-deveron/

Job vacancy
Project Deveron Catchment Restoration Manager: https://atlanticsalmontrust.org/vacancies/

[Ivor Duffus]

Project Deveron : https://atlanticsalmontrust.org/project-deveron/

Job vacancy
Project Deveron Catchment Restoration Manager: https://atlanticsalmontrust.org/vacancies/

Employed by the Atlantic salmon trust to oversee the project. Very interesting. Perhaps this is the way forward for the smaller cash strapped rivers. Just a little disappointing they never made the position a regional one to cover the Deveron, Don, Ythan .

[Bob Mitchell]

Would have done more good for all if some of the money had been used to get a removal [ do not like the word cull ] of some goosanders/cormorants and help all the rivers.
Bob.

[Duncan McRae]

During the summer ,while fishing above Alford, I came across a female goosander with fifteen almost full grown young.
A couple of weeks later I came across another family in the Inverurie area.There were twelve young in this brood.

I reckon the two broods must have consumed many thousands of juvenile fish to reach the stage they were at.

I would imagine that there are now many breeding pairs of Goosanders throughout the Don catchment and this must be greatly damaging to fish stocks.
The salmon smolts must take a real hammering as they migrate just as the Goosanders start feeding their young.

I don’t think we will ever stop the Goosanders from fishing the river but if there was some way of stopping them breeding on the river this would be huge help to fish stocks.

Duncan

[Bob Mitchell]

When you get in excess of 100 goosanders on a 2 mile stretch of river as my son and self did 2 seasons ago it is a wonder  that there is any parr/smolts small fish left. Of all the goosanders we saw at least 3/4 were this years.
Bob.

[Ivor Duffus]

Scottish government quango  Naturescot issues the licence for controlling goosanders. Which tends to be less than 1% of the bird count. Fairly sure when i last attended a Don AGM the bird count was around 200. They got a licence for 10  .

But as crazy as it is. Naturescot are happy to give the Dee and Spey Boards large cash handouts for river restoration work where  the  goosanders will thrive 

[Duncan McRae]

I read on the River Dee site that up to 37% of their smolts do not make it back to sea.
On some other rivers which were monitored the survival rate can be as low as 9% !!!

Duncan

[Bob Mitchell]

From what i have been told while helping out the Tay board has its number of goosanders increased from 30 to 40 kills. Considering the catchment area of the Tay and its  tributary's that is just a joke.
Bob..

[Mike Barrio]

Interesting reading ..........

https://riverdee.org.uk/news/an-exciting-new-job-to-deliver-save-the-spring/

https://riverdee.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Programme-Coordinator_Job-Specification.pdf

[Ivor Duffus]

Interesting reading ..........

https://riverdee.org.uk/news/an-exciting-new-job-to-deliver-save-the-spring/

https://riverdee.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Programme-Coordinator_Job-Specification.pdf

So a full time Project Manager on the Dee. A Project Manager on the Deveron.

Surely they could add the Don and Ythan and oversee them as well. But that would involve sharing the cash pot which they probably dont want to do