A Big Fish Rescue

The first steps of a rescue

Today or more accurately, a year ago or so, we mostly rescued fish…and some lamprey (eel type of creatures with concentric incisors – scary in a toothy type of way!). We transported them in a bucket after they had been stunned by a low-level electric current (Performed by the Cromarty Firth Fishery Board) – then they lived in a little tank for a while before they were scooped from the tank into a bucket once more… but wait, wheeeeeeeeeeeee! Down the slide and into the lovely burn with a bit of flapping.

The first steps of a rescue

Why? Part of the river Peffery is being remeandered from a straight channel serving former agricultural practices to a serpentine shape that will create holistic benefits to enhance river flow, habitat for fish and aquatic species, enhance surrounding biodiversity and open up economic opportunity by distancing the river from a formerly restricted business park that was inhibited by the proximity of the river (as there was a clear flooding threat). The work was managed by Lockett Agri-environmental Consultants through Nature Restoration Fund, transforming sequential parts of the Peffery river.

This requires a fair bit of hydrological engineering and moving fish from the former channel to the new channel pathway before it is drained. This is one aspect of nature restoration that is being supported across Scotland and beyond, but it’s hard to holistically quantity the benefit over spatial and temporal scales against the project cost – that would be an interesting exercise, perhaps the flood mitigation and threat alone will pay itself back within a few years without counting all other hard-to-quantify aspects such as biodiversity, soil enrichment, habitat integrity, enjoyment… fueling the reinvigorated urges of nature! I guess there is job creation, the potential impact on reopened business park and then general river health and transitioning ecosystem that has been created.

All-in-all it was an eye-opening day for relocation of aquatic species while engineering of the new Peffery was ongoing.