Loch Ken Salmon Hatchery
ScottishPower's Galloway Hydros are supporting efforts to reverse the decline in the populations of Atlantic salmon in local rivers.
Around 26,000 salmon fry were released into rivers in Galloway in spring 2006 after fish eggs were hatched in a custom built hatchery funded by money from the station.
The Hydros are also meeting the running costs of the facility, which was opened on the banks of Loch Ken in autumn 2005 and has capacity for bringing on up to 300,000 eggs each season.
Jamie Ribbens, senior biologist with the Galloway Fisheries Trust, welcomed the project and hoped it will make a significant difference to restoring some of the region's famous sporting fisheries.
He explained: "There has been concern that salmon stocks in the area have continued to decline for a number of different reasons. This project will play a key part in helping the recovery of our salmon stocks."
Mr Ribbens said there was a clear potential to improve salmon populations, conditions for anglers and help boost the local economy.
He estimated that, under optimum conditions, around 1,000 salmon could be caught each season by anglers on the River Dee - but, at present, only 50 to 60 are hooked, highlighting the perilous state of the species' population.
The hatchery works by allowing collected eggs to hatch in a protected environment before the fry are stocked out into good riparian habitat.
ScottishPower paid for the hatchery using the Landfill Tax Credit Scheme.
Mr Ribbens declared the first season's trial run a success. Around 30,000 eggs were harvested from returning fish in November/December 2005, kept until February 2006, then hatched out. The fry were fed for two months before being released into local rivers in May.
The baby salmon will spend up to two years in the river system before returning to the sea as smolts. It will then be another 24 months before the surviving adults return to the Solway and the Rivers Ken-Dee catchment to breed.
Mr Ribbens said the hatchery gives the eggs the best chance of hatching out, free from predation by species such as the non-native American Crayfish that has been introduced to the UK and
spread into the Galloway river system. And by selecting a clean release site, the fry have a head start in their battle for survival.
The young fry are being monitored several times a year to check their growth while it is hoped to step up the hatchery programme later this year.
For more information, see the Dee-Ken website: www.dee-ken-fishing.org
