Abstract
This document forms the 2018 interim report for the North Ease Scotland Salmon and Sea Trout Tracking Array and is provided to give an overview of the project so far and the data gathered. This project is funded by Vattenfall under the Environmental Research and Monitoring Programme for the European Offshore Wind Deployment Centre.
Migration routes of salmon and sea trout (“salmonids”) from the Rivers Dee, Don and Ythan will be investigated over three years (2018-2020) through tagging and tracking of migrating juvenile salmonid smolts. The data derived from the tracked individuals will be combined with local sea current information, to estimate actual swimming vectors of smolts. The use of the hydrodynamic Scottish Shelf Model (SSM), developed by Marine Scotland Science, will therefore provide a view of smolt dispersion around NE Scotland. The predictive capacity of the proposed work would be transferable to other windfarm and major construction projects.