Bosses squabble with government amid ‘death of the Spey’ warning

Bosses on one of the world’s most famous salmon rivers have found themselves at odds with the Scottish Government over how best to improve fish stocks.

Low water levels on the River Spey are one of the issues to have contributed to“catastrophic” catches.

Gloomy estimates suggest it could be one of the worst years on record for the river, which provides a huge annual boost to the economy of the north and north-east.

In a bid to arrest the decline, the Spey Fishery Board had drawn up an ambitious plan to collect some 350 fish from the river in an attempt to double production at its Glenlivet hatchery to a million eggs.

However, now the Scottish Government has told the group to keep the total at 200 amid fears that removing any more may threaten the viability of the entire population and the Spey’s river’s conservation status.

Last night, anglers said something had to be done.

Ian Gordon, who has been a ghillie on the Spey for nearly 40 years and now runs trips for overseas visitors, says this year’s season may have been the “worst ever”.

He said: “There’s no doubt this year has been disastrous. Very often following a season with low, warm water there is an upturn the following year.

“I would expect that again – but if we don’t get it then it could very well be the death of the Spey.

“Hatcheries have been proven to work in Iceland.

“We’re at the stage now where we need a national case study to see if it would work here.

“We were actually at that stage a few years ago.”

“We shouldn’t have let it get to this point where we are arguing about the situation – we should have hadtheanswerbynow.”

He added: “The argument against hatcheries is that it means the fish aren’t wild – if they go out to sea and come back, then I would consider them wild.”