Raising awareness of the River Deveron and its main tributaries; the River Bogie and the River Isla

The Hatchery: Fish propagation and restocking

The DBIT have operated a salmonid hatchery with the capacity to rear up to 300,000 ova since 2003. The main aim of the hatchery programme is to stock habitat that is sterile of fish stocks i.e. above completely/partially impassable obstructions and also areas where native fish stock densities are minimal. During its first year of operation, solely sea trout ova were reared and released, since 2004 salmon have been reared also.

Adults are annually collected by the electro-fishing and sweep net technique from the Upper Deveron, where our spring component is believed to spawn and from the Isla which has a series of major obstructions to migratory fish, in the form of distillery weirs. The hatchery reared fish are taken onto the fed fry stage and released between the end of June and September. In the Isla river system, the majority of fed fry have been planted out into burns where obstacles have been removed or where upstream migration to natural spawning areas is only possible under high water conditions.

The Deveron fry are planted out again where the brood stock originated and where natural recruitment is low. The level of stocking where natural spawning is impossible, is approximately 4/square metre. In sites where low numbers of native stocks occur the stocking level has been approximately 2/ square metre. In 2004, 40,000 sea trout were reared to fed fry stage and released. In 2005 and 2006 approximately 250,000 fed fry in total were released. In 2007 approximately 252,000 salmon fry was released.

The Deveron hatchery programme is currently operated in conjunction with the DBIRCT stocking policy and best practice guidelines produced by FRS i.e. Salmon and Sea trout- to stock or not? Hatchery work is in support of salmon fisheries (2007).

 Deveron Stock Enhancement Policy 2010/11

• Stock inaccessible areas above man-made obstructions or restrictions.
• Stock areas accessible to salmon and sea trout if proven to be under-populated.
• Stock inaccessible areas above natural obstructions if a large resident trout population is not present.
• Use only wild broodstock from the Deveron catchment.
• Broodstock will be sourced from close to target stocking areas, to maintain localised populations and to ensure optimal survival of stocked juveniles.
• Stock ova and/or fry subject to ease of access.
• Monitor stocking success annually with juvenile surveys and use data to guide future work.
• Review stock enhancement policy when results of genetic project are available.