Refurbishment of Helmsdale Fish Counter

The existing fish counter on the River Helmsdale is run as a joint endeavour between the Helmsdale District Salmon Fishery Board and the Marine Directorate. The facility was built (ca.1990) by the Board and is run locally by them whilst Marine Directorate’s role is to contribute technical expertise, some maintenance costs and to undertake the data processing required to produce a validated fish count for use in local, national and international assessments of salmon stocks. National stock assessments are statutory requirements on Scottish Ministers and Scottish Government are committed to working internationally to manage North Atlantic salmon stocks through ICES and NASCO. The existing facility no longer produces data of an acceptable quality for use in stock assessments. Our investigations have revealed that the site is undercounting fish, particularly in higher flows which is when most fish ascend the river. Advice has been obtained from an expert company and their opinion was that the issue is due to the installed equipment being beyond the end of its working life requiring replacement.