Question reference: S6W-09913
- Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
- Date lodged: 21 July 2022 Registered interest
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Current status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 15 August 2022
Question
To ask the Scottish Government whether it can provide a breakdown of what the £150,000 of funding, allocated by Crown Estate Scotland to wild salmon conversation projects, has been spent on.
Answer
Crown Estate Scotland contributed £150K funding towards the data collection component of the National Electrofishing Programme (NEPS) for Scotland 2021.
The total cost of data collection for NEPS 2021 was ca. £416,337 and was issued as a Grant to Fisheries Management Scotland. Marine Scotland covered the remaining costs of data collection and will cover the costs of analysis and publication.
The Crown Estate Scotland grant covered some modest project management time from Fisheries Management Scotland (£5,100) and the costs incurred by local fisheries managers (e.g. staff time, travel) in sampling fish populations at 810 sites across Scotland in 2021.
Payment was made on a “per-site” basis at £460 for electrofishing and a further £43.33 for genetic sampling, which underpins the National Introgression Programme for Scotland (NIPS).
The Crown Estates Scotland funding was not ring-fenced for specific regions or components of the data collection and, therefore, should be considered a contribution to the overall project.