Earstoun Fish Ladder fish rescue

22 July 2015

electrofishing in one of the fish ladder chambers

Antonio with a salmon in the ladder

one of the 60 trout caught in the ladder

Rowan releasing a salmon back into the river

Neil releasing a grilse into the river

This week we have completed a fish rescue in Earlstoun Fish Ladder on the Kirkcudbrightshire Dee. Earlstoun Loch has had to be lowered by Scottish Power to undertake various works so it was important to relocate the fish living in the fish ladder as the ladder will have no flow going through it until the loch is refilled. We successfully caught using electrofishing five adult salmon, eight salmon parr and 60 trout (including some herling) in the fish ladder. All the fish were then moved in tanks and released back into the Dee nearby.

The largest adult salmon was 71 cm long. The salmon parr were very healthy and one large individual was 173 mm long which is one of the longest salmon parr we have ever come across! Scales have been taken from this fish to see how old it is. The trout caught were mostly brown trout and many were between 0.25 lb and 0.75 lb in weight. The largest was well over a pound. There were some sea trout herling removed too. As soon as the Scottish Power work is complete then the loch will be refilled and the ladder will be operational again.

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