RIVER LOSSIE DISTRICT SALMON FISHERIES BOARD - PDF document

1 RIVER LOSSIE DISTRICT SALMON FISHERIES BOARD MINUTES OF MEETING held at Kellas Trout Fishery on Tuesday 10 th March 2015 at 3:45 p.m. Present David Houldsworth (Chair) , Frans Jurgens , F r e d Rhind , Charlie Gerrie, Duncan Dunbar - Nasmith , Crinan Dunbar In attendance R ob ert Laughton, FNLFT , Valerie Wardlaw, LDSFB (Minutes) , Item Acti on 1 Welcome and Apologies : David welcomed Crinan Dunbar of Pitgaveny Estate to the meeting . Apologies from Tomas Christie, Seymour Monro 2 Minutes of Last Boar d Meeting held 2 nd December 2014 Approved . 3 Matters Arising - none 4 Admin VW will circulate draft H&S policy, Equal Opportunities policy & Child Protection policy for ratification at the next Board meeting. Register of Financial Interests - no amendments repor ted by board members. VW to send a form to CD to complete. The FNLFT requested that the board reduce the number of meetings from 4 to 3 a year to reduce admin and board member’s time commitments. The board has trialled holding separate Qualified Propriet or and Annual Public meetings and they are causing unnecessary duplication. The board agreed to combine QP and APM with board meetings and reduce to 3 meetings a year. VW ALL CD 5 Financial VW will be sending out the second assessment notice for the year. VW to refund Eddie Gormanley for venue hire for board meetings . Actual income & expenditure is in line with budget to date. VW VW 6 Bailiffing The bailiffs at the R iver Watch meeting prior to this meeting reported that catches this season are not g ood due to high water level s. VW has confirmed the number of hours the Lossie Board is paying for the Findhorn bailiffs to patrol the Lossie until August. The Findhorn bailiffs will commence patrols in May. Sean McLean, the Findhorn Head bailiff is manag ing the mink project. Two mink have been caught this year and overall numbers are in decline whilst small mammal populations are recovering. 7 Wind Farms RL reported he has completed the Rothes WF monitoring contract, with no significant losses of juven ile fish due to the spate last year. Kellas WF has been granted planning permission, Dallas WF still under consideration. 8 Fisheries Trust Report RL gave an overview of the main pressures on the Lossie Catchment. The Water Framework Directive classi fies most stretches of the Lossie as ‘poor’ and SEPA are required to improve this classification to ‘good’ by 2027. This 2 classification is mainly due to man - made interference - weirs and barriers to fish passage associated with the distillery water intakes ; canalisation and rechanneling of the watercourse due to historic farming practices; chemical pollution from industry and diffuse pollution from agriculture. A Fluvial audit would help to identify how the board could improve these aspects of the river hab itat , returning the river to a more natural form and thus increase fish stocks in the river. SEPA has commissioned fluvial audits of many Scottish rivers, including the River Lossie and Linkwood Burn downstream of Brokentore. This audit will be conducte d by independent consultant Hamish Moir, with an initial report due in the autumn 2015. The audit will identify areas of the catchment which if improved, could raise the classification of the river . F unding will be available for identified improvements . It would be helpful if the Lossie DSFB could help to fund an extension of the audit by Hamish Moir to include the upper reaches. RL to get an estimate of cost and the board agreed to consider ways of funding an audit of the upper river once the lower rive r audit report is circulated. RL confirmed to FJ that cheaper glyphosate cannot be supplied through the INNS project as the INNS project is specifically targeting INNS along watercourses. Only Round - up is licenced for use near watercourses and it is the o nly chemical which can be supplied through the project. Cheaper glyphosate cannot be used within 10m of watercourses as it harmful to fish. 9 Elgin Flood Alleviation Scheme FR reported it is still due for completion in May 2015. Elgin AA have commissi oned Andy Walker to survey the Lossie for the compensation claim to Moray Council. Elgin Flood Alleviation project officer is applying for money from the Elgin common Good Fund to build accessible fishing platforms for disabled anglers. The Elgin AA will soon be unable to pay their assessments due to falling membership numbers. 10 Wild Fisheries Review ASFB consultation of licence to kill wild salmon - VW to respond to ask that sea trout are included if this goes ahead. It will detrimentally affect AA, a s an additional administrative burden and constraint to angling. 11 Correspondence - none 12 AOCB FJ asked for an update on control measures for the seagulls at the weirs - RL to follow up. David thanked Duncan Dunbar Naismith for Chairing the Lossie DSF B meetings and arranged a bottle of whiskey as a thank you for all his hard work. RL 13 Date of future meetings Board Meetings on June 9 th and September 8 th cancelled . August 5 th , Board meeting at 3.45pm December 1 st , Board meeting at 3.45pm including Annual M eeting of Qualified Proprietors March 1 st 2016, Board meeting at 3.45pm including Annual Public Meeting All at Kellas Trout Fishery.