Scotland’s West Coast salmon rivers are in crisis with 71% meeting Marine Scotland’s Grade 3 status requiring mandatory catch and release. The RCCA Riparian owners have funded groundbreaking research to help inform future conservation programmes in order to save Scotland’s wild salmon population for future generations.

The Rivers and Lochs Institute at Inverness College, University of the Highlands and Islands have analysed the DNA from three years of salmon catches on the River Carron. The results were then compared with DNA from the salmon broodstock used in the stocking programme to find out whether the stocked juvenile fish were surviving to return as adults.

Scientist and fishing enthusiast Bob Kindness has been collecting samples for DNA analysis from catches on the river for a decade by clipping a small piece from each salmon’s tail fin. The Rivers and Lochs Institute at Inverness College, University of the Highlands and Islands have analysed the DNA from three years of salmon catches.