The secretary would like to thank all those that attended the meeting. Considering the size of the membership the attendance was disappointingly low. The main point of interest for the members was the decision to keep ticket prices the same as last year. The following report was given to the meeting by the secretary.
SEASON 2018 CATEGORY 3 STATUS.
The secretary was unhappy to report that Marine Scotland had given the Eden a category 3 status for the 2018 season. On behalf of the membership he had appealed this decision. He understood that other appeals had been lodged on our behalf including an appeal by the TDS FB. Whether these appeals are successful remains to be seen but as yet Marine Scotland have not produced any reliable scientific data to back the decision to make the Eden a category 3 River.
ANNUAL CATCH RETURNS.
The secretary reported that once again the annual catch returns were poor. There has been encouraging use of the catch return form on the website but the majority of members did not send in their annual catch return. Without this information it is very difficult to assess the actual health of the River. At this point in time, it would appear that the salmon and finnock catch would be down from last year’s figure.
RIVER CONDITION.
Several members including the secretary had noticed that there was no weed growing in the River below Springfield. This could have a catastrophic effect on the ecology of the River. The lack of weed meant that there was little or no cover for the fish and left them wide open to predators. The whole ecology of the River was in jeopardy. The secretary had contacted SNH, the TDSFB and SEPA. None of these government agencies offered any practical help. After contacting the local MSP, SEPA agreed to investigate the situation with an ecology unit. As yet the secretary has not received any reports on their findings.
TDSFB.
The secretary had attended several of the Tay board committee meetings over the year. He hoped to highlight the River Eden and its ongoing problems. So far the board will not commit to taking salmon from the Eden for breeding purposes nor did they seem particularly interested in this year’s problem of all the weed dying out. They had conducted a survey of juvenile salmon in 2016 and 2017 however none of the data from these surveys has been made available to the Association. The secretary intends to attend that the Tay board AGM to raise points on behalf of the Association.