]> 2026-04-12T06:37:57+00:00 Case study:River Dee 500 en Approved 2 - 5 m 5 - 10 m Planting Introduction of spawning gravels Regrading Yes Yes Improvement Fish: Species composition,Yes,Yes,,Yes,,Improvement Fish: Abundance,Yes,Yes,,Yes,,Improvement Fish: Species composition Fish: Abundance Yes Adding sinuosity River Restoration Centre River Dee Trust Great Britain Yes No Yes false No 52.950913312556,-3.0095672607422 NickRRC Nick River Restoration Centre Elbourne Planting,Introduction of spawning gravels,Regrading,,Adding sinuosity, ,,,Information provision,Consultation,Participation in design On 3rd October 2014 the first salmon ascended the Culter Dam in over 250 years, thanks to a fish pass we installed on the dam just days earlier funded entirely by businessmen Martin Gilbert and Stewart Spence. This dam, at Peterculter, is the largest man-made obstruction on the River Dee. *2014 Season: Numbers up the fish pass to date (June 2015): 43 Salmon 69 Sea trout Why install a fish pass on the Culter? The fish pass has opened up 76 miles of habitat in the previously inaccessible Culter burn for migratory salmon and sea trout to re-establish natural populations in. Only the lowest one mile of burn is below the dam and so accessible to salmon and sea trout. The spawning and rearing habitat in this part of the burn is fully utilised, resulting in high juvenile fish densities. High juvenile fish densities mean lots of competition and higher mortality rates. Creating more rearing habitat for juveniles will result in lower mortality rates and so higher fish production. Once habitat restoration work is completed in the Culter catchment we expect to see an additional 1,500 salmon returning to the Dee each year. These salmon may be available to the catch and release rod fishery as far up river as Banchory, as our radio tracking studies show how fish may wander up to 20km upstream from where they eventually spawn. Monitoring Fish Pass Success A Vaki fish counter is installed at the top of the fish pass to record how many fish are using the pass to ascend the dam. The counter records the length of each fish. We assume that all fish longer than 50cm are salmon, fish between 30 and 50cm length are sea trout and fish less than 30cm are brown trout. In practice, there is some size overlap, particularly between small salmon and large sea trout. Our scale data show we would expect 6% error in these classifications. 861 River Dee Trust, Complete Obstructions to fish migration on the Dee: Since 2007, the Dee DSFB and Trust have eased or removed 27 manmade obstructions to fish migration from the river Dee's tributaries. '''the aim is simple: To allow fish to gain access to their natural spawning grounds.''' These manmade obstructions include weirs, bridges, vehicle fords and culverts. Some are completely impassable to fish, others are impassable in low flows; the latter can delay migration and have a knock-on effect of making fish more vulnerable to predators and stress. In 2007 we assessed all the known manmade obstructions to prioritise them for easement or removal. For example, removing an obstruction that is on a tributary with poor habitat for salmon, or that is located close to the headwater source, will offer a lot less potential for increasing fish production than removing an obstruction that is low down on a prime-quality tributary. The physical work of tackling the obstructions is often supported by obtaining external funding, particularly from SEPA's Water Environment Fund and from the EU LIFE fund. The physical works are completed by contractors or in many cases by our staff. In 2014, the largest manmade obstruction was eased by installing a fish pass to the face of the Culter dam and two weirs further upstream in the Culter tributary were eased River Dee river dee http://www.riverdee.org.uk/welcome.asp No Middle Dee Dee Dee - Chester Weir to Ceiriog dee - chester weir to ceiriog Dee Restoration dee restoration 1000 - 10000 km² 136 100 - 200 m Dee - Chester Weir to Ceiriog GB111067057080 Economic aspects Habitat and biodiversity Hydromorphology Land use management - agriculture Monitoring Spatial planning GB111067057080 Dee - Chester Weir to Ceiriog Information provision Consultation Participation in design 2012-07-31T17:34:13Z 2456140.2320949 2017-06-01T15:11:21Z 2457906.1328819 River Dee 500 1 plainlist 5 [[Category:Case study]] [[Project title::!River Dee]] [[Subcatchment title::Dee - Chester Weir to Ceiriog]] River Dee# QUERY25099af98dc8b2de7552901ad5e57e06