Tay District Salmon Fisheries Board
The Tay District Salmon Fisheries Board is the statutory body empowered to protect and improve the salmon fisheries in the Tay district. This means looking after not just Atlantic salmon and sea trout but the River Tay system as a whole, this includes river management, conservation, scientific research and bailiffing.
The Tay district has been working to remove invasive species for a number of years, through the Tay Foundation. Survey work was initially undertaken in 2006 to assess the extent of the problem and define areas of priority for work. This included partnering with the RAFTS project in 2010 to control Japanese knotweed on the River Earn. Large sections of riverbank were sprayed between Aberuthven and Crieff.
The Board is now working in partnership with the Scottish Invasive Species Initiative to control invasive plants in the Tay system upstream of Perth (Upper and Middle Tay, Almond, Ericht, Isla, Tummel). Target species for control are predominantly Giant hogweed and Japanese Knotweed, with localised areas of Himalayan Knotweed and American Skunk Cabbage. Trial sites for Himalayan balsam blight are being identified, with the intention to start trials in 2024.
American mink is also being controlled across the catchment – the Tay fishery board have been an active partner in previous mink control projects and this work is now continuing under the Scottish Invasive Species Initiative. As a bordering region in the project area, Tayside is a critical catchment for mink control within the wider project to prevent mink moving from the central belt to the north-east.
Contact
Mark Purrmann-Charles (SISI Project Officer): [email protected] Tel: 07741 639556
or
David Summers (Director): [email protected] Tel: 01738 583733