Moray Offshore Windfarm East (Moray East) has donated GB£300,000 to help fund The Missing Salmon Project, Europe’s largest multi-agency salmon tracking project to discover why the species’ numbers are dwindling.
The Missing Salmon Project was launched by the Atlantic Salmon Trust in April, with the first phase of the project to focus on Atlantic salmon smolts leaving the Moray Firth’s river network. The donation from Moray East will help fund the equipment required for the scheme, which will see a 65-mile wide ‘acoustic gateway’ installed across the mouth of the Moray Firth to track the fish as they make their way out to sea.
Valuable research
Mark Bilsby from the Atlantic Salmon Trust, said: “The tracking project in the Moray Firth will be the furthest that we have been able to follow the progress of young salmon and will greatly expand our understanding of smolt behaviour and survival in the freshwater and coastal environment.
“It will contribute to The Missing Salmon Project which aims to ensure that more fish survive their perilous journey. The information collected will give fishery managers and policy makers the information they need to help protect this iconic species.”
Sarah Pirie, head of development for Moray East, said the project will “gather data to understand why salmon mortality has been increasing for decades; data which is necessary if that trend is to be reversed and species future assured.”
The project needs to raise GB£1m the end of 2018, with 950MW Moray East one of the first commercial sponsors.
