Home

January 2001

Schools Project

Fishing the Annan

Environmental Managers Quarterly Report April 2002

Fencing

W J Murray fencing will start the delayed fencing programme on 
April 15th. This year work will concentrate on the Upper Annan, 
the upper Kinnel, and the Mein (part of the joint FWAG land 
wise project).

Bankside revetments and instream works

Last years work appears to have stood up to this year’s high 
water pretty well. A small (15m) amount of log and Christmas 
tree work has been lost on the Ae but the vast majority of it 
has held up well and is providing good cover for salmon as well 
as a stronger bank. The rock revetments placed in the river 
appear to be sound and a channel is now forming that will be 
less likely to dry up in future years.

The works on the Moffat water in the forestry upstream of 
Polmoody farm have proved very successful. This work was 
extremely cheap to carry out as all the materials with the 
exception of the steel pins were on site. The landowner gave us 
permission to fell as many spruce as we needed to complete the 
operation. This has had a dual benefit as as well as 
strengthening the banks and providing superb fish cover we have 
created and extensive clearing, which is now re-colonising with 
willow and alder. 

This year a large programme of bankside revetment works has 
been organised using a variety of techniques. Log and Christmas 
tree will be used to tackle identified sections on the Annan 
water (around 130m) the lower Mein (around 50m) and further 
works in the Moffat water upstream of Polmoody farm (around 
200m). In addition a partnership project between East West 
Haulage, Milton Farm and John Hammond will tackle an area of 
rapid erosion on the lower Evan in a similar way to the work 
that was carried out on the Ae last year. This work is 
currently subject to a planning application, the costs of which 
are being met by East West Haulage.


Education

All the salmon in the classroom projects went well most of the 
schools achieved a successful hatch rate of around 99%. WGFT 
kindly lent us a number of salmon eggs, which have been 
returned to their hatchery as swim up fry and alevins. The 
pupils were unaware of this and were able to release fish into 
the river, which had been caught previously in the Annan and 
swapped with the WGFT ova in the back of the fisheries board 
pickup.

Survey work

The process of collating al, of the various surveys carried out 
in the last few years is continuing. It will take considerably 
longer than first thought due to limitations in available time 
but it should be completed in the next couple of months. Once 
this exercise is completed it will be an invaluable tool for 
directing the fisheries board to the types of work that should 
be carried out in different parts of the river.

This year habitat surveys will continue whenever possible on 
the Milk, which has not been previously surveyed. The 
Electrofishing programme will continue as normal starting in 
August. One area where very little work has been carried out is 
the status of the minor fish populations in the river. This 
fishery is becoming more important with many anglers now 
enquiring about access and the quality of the fishing. It is 
therefore more important than ever to obtain some base line 
data so that this fishery can be managed without over 
exploitation in the future. To this end it is proposed that 
around a week will be set a side during the summer months to 
carry out intensive netting of the middle reaches of the river 
to obtain information on what is present, population estimates 
and age classes present (or missing). This work will require a 
great deal of manpower but it should be able to obtain much of 
this by roping in the help of volunteers. 

BGE Gas Pipeline

The gas pipeline that is being built from Beatock right across 
the catchment has the potential to do great damage to the 
fishery if not properly managed. To avoid this damage the 
fisheries board is working closely with the contracting 
companies, Entropose & Penspan. The main issues to be resolved 
are the methods of river crossings the time of year when the 
crossings take place and the exact locations of each river 
crossing point. Regular briefing meetings are proposed with 
fisheries interests and SEPA so that the operation can both 
progress quickly and safely. The fisheries board has already 
carried out basic surveys of the habitat and fish populations 
that are present at each site and will reinforce these surveys 
with further work in May. The board will be paid for these 
works.

Pollution 

There have been very few pollution incidents reported to SEPA 
during the last quarter whether this is a reflection of 
declining incidents or a lack of reporting is not clear. As 
usual a list of the recorded incidents has been supplied by 
SEPA and attached to the back of this report in appendices 1.

Spring Salmon

This year has been the best Spring for salmon on the Annan for 
many years, the numbers of fish caught are still pitifully low 
but fish have been seen passing through the caul by a variety 
of people since the season began. The catch so far has been 
around six fish (five on the timeshare beat and one in the 
stake nets) but this is as much a reflection on the almost 
total lack of fishing pressure as anything else. If enough 
anglers were willing to give it a go the lower beats in 
particular could well through up a few more fish. What has been 
disappointing is that a number of these fish have been killed. 
Spring fish are incredibly valuable to the river, a value that 
far outweighs their carcass cost, and every fish is needed to 
spawn. It is becoming more imperative that ever to ensure that 
the killing of any salmon in the earlier part of the season is 
outlawed for a period of time. This restriction should cover 
the entire fishery, both upper and lower.

Staff

As reported in the last board report it is proposed that we 
dispose of the services of the part time water bailiffs this 
year and employ one full time member of staff using a mixture 
of money saved over the last few years and the income from 
contracts, such as the BGE pipeline contract. It was proposed 
that this would be a position would be someone who was used for 
both bailiffing and habitat works depending upon the most 
pressing priority at a given time of year and that this person 
would be paid £14,500 per annum. The board felt that the salary 
offered was to high and suggested a figure of £9,500. I feel 
that the board should reconsider this and raise this salary so 
that we can attract candidates that are of a higher calibre and 
more importantly are likely to stay for a long period of time 
without just using the Annan as a short term training facility.

Salmon conservation bill

As a result of the events earlier in this season and a through 
a number of meetings with a small number of proprietors it is 
time for the board to decide whether or not it wishes to use 
some of the powers that it now has with regard to making 
applications for changes in the regulations that currently 
operate on the fishery. The following are suggested proposals 
that would make sense with the relevant acts of parliament that 
would be used to implement them. 
The salmon conservation bill is basically an amendment to the 
1986 Salmon Fisheries (Scotland) Act and all of the 
restrictions that have been spoken about in the past would be 
implemented through this various sections of this act.

1. Catch and release of salmon from the 25th of February 
to the 1st of June and from the 16th of November to the 30th of 
November. Section 10 (important that this refers to salmon 
specifically and not salmon and sea trout)

2. Change in the annual close time for sections of the rod 
fishery from the 16th of November to the 30th. Section 6.

3. Prohibition of certain baits and lures at certain times 
of year. Prohibited methods have to be listed it is not 
sufficient to just state what methods can be used. Suggest 
outlawing worm, shrimp, prawn and multi hook lures (e.g. 
Rapalas) during the fishing season up until June and after the 
end of September. Section 8

4. Change the annual close time for sea trout so that no 
fish can be killed after the end of August. Section 10 allows 
sea trout to be named for separate legislation. Section 6 
allows for the change in the annual close time.


The parts of the river that would be affected by the rod 
fishery would be proprietors that agreed to lease there fishing 
entirely to either RADSFB or RAFIA. This agreement would be 
made before making the application and only those sections of 
the river that agreed to these proposals would be included in 
the application. Also in certain areas of the river it would be 
inappropriate to extend the season due to the risk of 
disturbing spawning fish. It is therefore suggested that the 
extension would not apply to any tributaries of the river and 
will be confined to the main stem of the Annan from three 
waters meet through to the bottom.

The order that this legislation would progress is:

Write to SERAD outlining the proposals and supply supporting 
information. They word the legislation into legal jargon.

Once the reworded bill is returned with any amendments that 
both parties are happy with the bill has to be advertised for 
two consecutive weeks in the most relevant local paper and the 
Gazette. 

The bill is then placed on the register of new bills for 28 
days whilst letters of support and opposition are evaluated.

After 28 days if no MSP’s raise any questions about the bill 
and the balance of replies is in favour of the bill it 
automatically becomes law. If questions are tabled the bill is 
debated in parliament and put to a vote. 
Hatchery

A decision has yet to be made on the type of hatchery that the 
Annan needs so the following plans are just an indication of 
the requirements and costs for setting up such a facility for 
the river. The capital start up costs can be significant so 
care should be taken to ensure that the board realise the cost 
of the options available. The plans below show the requirements 
for opening a hatchery that would have a capacity of 500,000 
ova and would allow the growing of all of these fish through to 
the first winter. Beyond that a proportion could be taken on 
through that winter to stock as 1+parr or S1 smolts if that is 
felt necessary. It must be remembered however that the longer 
you keep the fish in a hatchery the greater the costs will 
become and also the lifetime fitness of the fish will be much 
reduced. Operating a hatchery that grows on fish throughout the 
year becomes a 7 day a week 52 weeks a year commitment, the 
board should be aware of this and staffing levels will have to 
be raised to cover this.

Costs for setting up and running a hatchery on the Annan.

Capital costs

Buildings.

There should be somewhere dry and secure to hold all the 
relevant paper work that will surround the hatchery and to 
store equipment that will be needed when operating it. (Nets, 
grading baskets, feeders and hatching trays). This would 
ideally be on site and double up as a general office for the 
fisheries board. This facility could be a porta-cabin type 
structure or a rented building on site. The cost would be 
around £5,000 for a second hand cabin in good condition.

Troughs

4 x 0.5m hatchery troughs can contain 4 trays and a maximum of 
24,000 ova.

The cost of these including trays and screens from Westwood 
Mouldings is:

£498.00 ea ex Vat spare trays are £80 ea ex Vat.

21 troughs of this type would be needed which will cost

£10,458 ex vat = £12,288.15 Gross

The fry would be first fed in these troughs if that were 
required.

Tanks

There are various specifications for tanks. Modern fibreglass 
tanks can be built to stand-alone and do not need to be bedded 
into a supporting structure. This enables them to be moved 
around with relative ease. Cheaper tanks are available but 
these need to be bedded into the ground and may work out more 
expensive after this has been done. 5m dia x 1.5m deep tanks 
will be required for broodstock. From Westwood Mouldings these 
tanks would cost:

Basic model £2,200 ea Ex Vat or for free standing model £3,000 
ea Ex Vat plus £65 for top hat screens.

For maiden broodstock only four tanks will be needed. For kelt 
regeneration a further two would be required. This would cost:


Maiden brood stock only Basic model £9,060 ex Vat 
Gross £10,650.50
Free Standing £12,260 ex Vat Gross £14,405.50 

Kelt Regeneration Basic model £13,590 ex Vat 
Gross £15,968.25
Free Standing £18,390 ex Vat Gross £21,608.25 

For the growing of the fish post first feeding smaller 3m x 
1.25m tanks would be needed from west wood mouldings these 
cost:

Basic Model £1,075 ea ex vat. Free standing Model £1,500 ea ex 
vat. All plus £65 per top hat screen. 

To grow the all the fry from first feeding through to 0+ parr 
would require 15 tanks at 45,000 fry per tank until first grade 
in mid summer then 33,000 per tank through to stocking. This 
would also allow for the growing of fish through to 1+ parr or 
even S1 smolt as there would only be 10 or so tanks in use 
until mid summer. This would cost:

Basic model £17,100 ex vat Gross 
£20,092.25 
or Free standing model £23,475ex vat 
Gross £27,583.13 

Additional costs

25 24-hour 5kg clockwork belt feeders (Aquaculture Engineering) 
£79 ea 
Gross £2,320.63 
17 electric 5kg feeders (Aquaculture Engineering) £150ea 
Gross £2,996.25 
4 or 6 5m dia 85% shade nets shade nets (Collins nets) £193 ea 
ex Vat 
Gross £907.10 
Or (Kelt unit) 
Gross £1,360.65 
15 3m dia 85% shade nets shade nets (Collins nets) £95 ea ex 
Vat Gross £1,674.38 
Dissolved O2 meter (Dryden Aquaculture) £450 ex Vat 
Gross £528.75 
Basket Graders (Aquaculture Engineering) £1,000 ex vat 
Gross £1,175 
Pipe work - until site is known this cannot be easily 
quantified, 
therefore, an allowance of £5000 should be made 
Gross £5,000 
Planning permission for 1Ha site 
Gross £1,100 
4 Fry nets (Collins nets) £21 ea 
Gross £98.70 
2 Heavy-duty Brood stock dip nets (Collins nets) £78 ea 
Gross £183.30 

Total Capital Costs 

Maiden broods & parr unit only = £64,010 - £75,261 
Depending on tanks used.
Kelt regeneration unit & parr unit= £69,787 - £82,917 
Depending on tanks used.


If the Annan were to go down the road of stocking unfed fry or 
ova these costs would be dramatically reduced. As there would 
not be the same requirements of space and tanks. The following 
costs indicate what these savings would be.

Maiden broodstock unit only = £35,752 - £40,925 
Depending on tanks used.
Kelt regeneration unit = £41,528 - £47,168 
Depending on tanks used.

A mixture of the two producing in the order of 30,000 0+parr 
and around 500,000 ova or unfed fry would cost less than 
growing on 500,000 parr as only 4 3m tanks would be required.

Maiden spawners only £48,048 - £53,805
Kelt spawners £53,824 - £61,642

Broodstock only facility

All board members agree that the hatchery must be targeted at 
early running fish, as they are the most threatened of the 
Annan’s stock components. This creates problems with the 
collection of brood stock as the rarity of Annan Springer’s 
means that the rod fishery will catch few. This year’s catch is 
the best for many years but is still only 5 fish so far (as of 
02/04/02). To generate 500,000 ova at least 63 hen fish would 
be needed (at around 8,000 ova per fish) and a similar number 
of cock fish. This number unlikely to be achieved by any method 
other than either trapping the fish or electrofishing for them 
close to their spawning grounds. It would certainly not be 
possible to collect this number of fish in one day unless the 
whole ethos of the hatchery is abandoned and any fish are used. 
It is doubtful that in the initial stages this number of 
broodstock could be caught by any method. This would mean that 
the hatchery could not run at full capacity for the first few 
years unless either the criteria by which the fish are selected 
is relaxed (which brings the validity of the scheme into 
question) or previously spawned kelts are kept on to spawn in 
the following years.

What becomes apparent is that unless another facility is 
prepared to hold broodstock for the Annan over many months is 
that the Annan DSFB would have to build a broodstock unit of 
its own. This would enable the retention of fish caught by 
anglers at the beginning of the season and hold the fish that 
are caught up at the end of the season.

The cost for this would be as follows:

Maiden fish only = £23,365 - £27,125
Kelt regeneration = £29,141 - £34,781

All the above costs are based on new prices from a variety of 
manufacturers; substantial savings could be made if second hand 
equipment could be sourced. Site development costs have not 
been included, as these will vary tremendously from site to 
site. Site selection will be crucial to stop these costs 
escalating.

Running Costs

These would depend again on the type of unit that is being run.

Broadly the costs can be outlined as follows:

Salaries and NI 
£19,000
Electric 
£1,000
Fry Feed (Based on 5tonne at £800/tonne) 
£4,000
SEPA discharge licences 
£400 Travel costs for releasing and 
collection 
£1,000
Lease/rent site 
£3,000
Misc. & ongoing repairs 
£5,000
Kelt Food 
£1,000

Miscellaneous costs would include the replacement of nets and 
screens, purchase of medicines, administrative costs, purchase 
of measuring and weighing equipment and all unforeseen costs 
This figure may end up being very conservative.
It would therefore cost roughly:

Parr from maiden spawners: 
£33,400
Parr from kelt spawners: 
£34,400
Ova/unfed fry from maiden spawners: 
£28,900
Ova/unfed fry from kelt spawners: 
£30,400
Mixture of unfed fry/ova and parr from maidens 
£30,200
Mixture of unfed fry/ova and parr from kelts 
£31,200
Maiden brood stock only 
£28,900
Kelt regeneration broodstock only 
£30,400

The running costs all include the employment of a full time 
member of staff, this would be required whatever method is used 
but the amount of time that they devote to the hatchery would 
change depending on the choice that the board makes. This 
member of staff would be diverted to other board duties when 
time allows.


Site selection

Site selection will have a bearing on the overall costs of the 
hatchery and its ability to produce fish. The most obvious 
requirement is water. The following list of requirements will 
guide the fisheries board to the parts of the catchment where a 
hatchery could be considered.

1. Anywhere the water dries up frequently or becomes very 
low during parts of the year would not be suitable. The volume 
of water needed for a unit that will keep broodstock all year 
and grow fish is considerable.

2. The gradient of the feeder river must be sufficient to 
generate enough head to allow the water to flow through the 
fish farm.

3. The water should not carry large amounts of sediment 
when in spate (rules out rivers such as the Milk, Dryfe and 
Mein)

4. If at all possible there should be know more fish farms 
on the section of river used (particularly upstream) to avoid 
the transfer of diseases.

5. Anywhere downstream of intensive industry (including 
agriculture) would not be suitable.

6. The site should be relatively flat and of hard material 
to reduced the costs of landscaping. The site should be 
sufficiently large to allow for a settlement area to ensure 
that there are no breaches of SEPA regulations.

7. Good road networks into and around the site are 
essential (there may be potential tourist revenue if the site 
can be well located)

These criteria effectively indicate that the best areas for a 
hatchery would be in the upper tributaries (Annan, Evan, and 
Kinnel). There are other areas that could be considered but are 
not ideal such as Johnston Bridge (Potential pollution problems 
but has a good head of water created by the old trout farm 
weir) Moffat water or Water of Ae (trout farms already present 
but contain excellent water quality).

Where Annan Fish could be stocked

The choice of stocking locations for the fish the result from 
the hatchery is pivotal to the success of the programme, in 
particular it is important to realise that damage to native 
stocks could happen if ill thought out stocking programmes are 
implemented. The river has been split into sections with the 
amount of currently unused water available. Some tributaries 
such as the Mein have underlying problems that means although 
there are few salmon using the watercourse there would be 
little point in stocking it until these problems have been 
resolved.

River Burn Length m Mean Width m Area m2 Unfed 
fry/ova @ 7/m2 0+parr 50/100m2
Moffat Water Blackhope 3,000 2 6000 42000 
3000
Carifran 2,500 2 5000 35000 2500
Evan Water Evan 6,500 3 19500 136500 9750
Cloffin Burn 3,500 2 7000 49000 3500
Garpol 4,500 2 9000 63000 4500
Kinnel Kinnel Head 4,000 2 8000 56000 4000
Duff Kinnel 1,500 1.5 2250 15750 1125
Ae Ae 4,000 2 8000 56000 4000
Capel 2,500 2 5000 35000 2500
Milk Capel 2,000 2 4000 28000 2000
Corrie 1,500 1.5 2250 15750 1125
Whamphray Whamphray 3,000 2 6000 42000 
3000
Totals 574,000 41,000
Not easily accessible by road Salmon already 
present but at very low densities due to obstructions
Another river that could be considered is the Kirtle. Salmon 
are rarely found on this river and it is possible that a 
population could be re-established through stocking. This river 
could easily swallow 1million fry.
The stocking densities that have been chosen are a mean of the 
commonly used densities and would be adjusted up and down 
depending upon the habitat quality at any given stocking 
location. The choice between stocking unfed fry or ova is a 
decision that has to be made, not just on cost but also on 
practicalities and worth. It is not true to say that you can 
generate more adults from stocking of 0+ parr than unfed fry it 
is more important to make sure that all of the available 
habitat is being used by pre-smolt fish and this can be 
achieved by stocking with either. 

Monitoring the success of this programme will be vitally 
important to ensure that the project is worthwhile on both 
economic and conservation grounds. To a certain extent this can 
be carried out through electrofishing surveys but that will 
only tell us how successful the freshwater survival is. 
Freshwater survival does not appear to be linked to marine 
survival and performance so some form of tagging programme 
would have to be implemented to undertake this and this 
programme would have to monitor the survival of both hatchery 
origin fish and wild origin fish. 

Finances

The HLF application is continuing a pace and has been submitted 
to HLF as a first draft. A number of projects were included. 
The RADSFB project was one of the projects that was highlighted 
as being worthwhile to be included in the final bid. This is 
just one hurdle that has been passed and there will still be 
many more months of negotiations before a finalised successful 
bid is achieved but progress is being made.

We have secured continued support from both Solway heritage 
(landfill tax fund) and SNH for the next 12 months and also 
have raised a substantial amount of money from a number of 
proprietors on the river. Captain R Cunningham Jardine (£500), 
Mrs C, M, McKeane (£200), Mrs I.M. Halliday (£250), Crown 
Estates Commissioners (£500) and J. A. Caruthers (£500) all 
have contributed additional funds so far to continue the 
habitat works in the immediate future. 

In addition a small angling competition was held on the upper 
river during March that raised a further £500. Annandale 
Estates and the Upper Annandale Angling Association kindly gave 
up their water FOC for this competition and Mike Charlton of 
Lockerbie Fishing Supplies put in a great deal of time 
organising this event. In addition to this there where a large 
number of marshals who all helped to make things go smoothly. 
As an aside all the competitors were asked to estimate how much 
they spent and this averaged out at around £200, so visitors 
that would not have been present otherwise spent an additional 
£4000 in Lockerbie. All of the competitors also said that they 
would be back over the course of this season and would fish 
again in future events.



Scottish Environment Protection Agency
Report for RADSFB Meeting on 12 April 2002
Water Pollution Incidents/Reports in River Annan/Kirtle Water 
Catchment
8 December 2001 - 18 March 2002

Date Reporter Location Incident/Watercourse 
Action Taken
17/1/02 NC Dalmakethar Silt - Dalmakethar Burn 
No action taken
23/1/02 Public Birkshaw Silt – trib Annan 
Remedial action taken
1/2/02 WoSW Winterhope Reservoir Silt from farm access 
track – Winterhope Reservoir Advice given to farmer
7/2/02 SEPA Middlebie Slurry – Middlebie Burn Advice 
given to farmer 
21/2/02 Public Brydekirk Slurry – trib Annan Advice 
given to farmer
22/2/02 Public Beattock Run-off from dung midden - trib 
Annan Warning issued

Home