Nith Salmon Smolt Tracking Project

We have some exciting news about a new upcoming project! This year the Nith Catchment Fishery Trust will be tagging 50 of the salmon smolts leaving two of our main tributaries, the Mennock and Crawick waters as part of a project called the Nith Salmon Smolt Tracking Project.

We are doing so in the hope of increasing our knowledge as to how quickly the smolts migrate down river and which points along the route the smolts are most at risk, with the hope of eventually being able to implement measures to ease their passing in any identified danger zones.

The Nith Salmon Smolt Tracking Project (NSSTP) project is supported by the Holywood Trust, Dumfries and Galloway Council and Nith District Salmon Fishery Board. During this spring we will track the salmon smolts through 8 different relay points along the river until they reach the Solway Firth near New Abbey, but that’s not all! When the smolts leave the river and head out to sea our project will merge with a larger nationwide project called the West Coast Salmon Smolt Tracking Project (WCSSTP).

The WCSSTP is designed to again increase our knowledge about the smolts journey, this time about the routes they take and the dangers they face while travelling round the west coast of Scotland. Seven other Scottish fisheries trusts will be taking part in the WCSSTP which is being run in co-operation with the Scottish Government and the Atlantic Salmon Trust. For the WCSSTP we will tag a further 100 smolts as they enter the lower reaches of the river.

We hope that the results of our project and those of the WCSSTP will help us better understand the Atlantic salmon’s migration and possibly allow us to reduce smolt mortality rates, hopefully resulting in more adults eventually returning home to spawn, reducing some of the pressure on the currently endangered species.

Over the next few months we will be posting a lot more updates and details about the project, so keep your eyes peeled!