Abstract
There are concerns about interactions between Marine Renewable Energy (MRE) and migratory fish, in particular Atlantic salmon. Marine Scotland Science (MSS) is attempting to gain information in key areas. Firstly it is necessary to obtain information about which populations of salmon occupy which coastal areas. To this end MSS has been undertaken a programme of genetic characterisation of regional variation in salmon, based on Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms, in order to assign fish intercepted at sea to their likely region of origin. In addition to obtaining geographical distribution of migrating salmon, information about the depths at which they are swimming in coastal waters is vital in the assessment of potential impact of MRE devices. In May-June 2013 MSS fitted pop-up satellite tags to adult salmon caught on the north coast, recording water depth and temperature at regular intervals, and providing a single geographic location following detachment.