A trust that cares for north-east rivers has saved more than half their fish stocks of the future after a hatchery collapsed near Keith.
Deveron, Bogie and Isla Rivers Trust staff and volunteers managed to rescue around 100,000 fertilised salmon and trout eggs from the snow-crushed hatchery on the Drummuir Estate.
Around 3.5ft of snow had built up at the tunnel-type hatchery, before it gave way despite desperate attempts to support the structure with timber.
“It was like trying to prop up the Eiffel Tower using matchsticks,” said the trust’s fisheries development officer, Alastair Fenn.
“More than 1.5ft of snow fell on one night, and built up on ice coating the structure. It was an immense weight.”
Along with senior biologist Richie Miller, Mr Fenn struggled through deep snow last week to clear the roof of the five-year-old hatchery.
As the build-up of snow and ice made 80% of the building unsafe – and blocked the water supply that kept the eggs alive – a team of five people dug through the side of the buckled structure to save the trays of 180,000 eggs.
Then after an hour-long trip on wintry roads, the salvaged wild salmon and trout eggs were delivered by four-wheel-drive vehicles to the Forgue Fishery, near Huntly, where farmer Bob McWilliam had offered to house the vital stocks.
Mr Fenn said last night: “There is bound to be some further loss of eggs. If we had lost them all it would certainly have been a disaster for the local economy.
“We will be closely monitoring the rescued eggs over coming weeks – fortunately they have reached the stage where they are fairly resilient – and also trying to recover equipment from the hatchery which is a total loss.”
Mr Fenn, of Avochie Stables, Avochie, added: “Fortunately the River Deveron is in a very healthy state, reaching its highest catch rates in recent years with more than 4,000 salmon landed last season.”
The 27-year-old Ulster University graduate has only been in his new job for 10 weeks, and said the rescue operation had been challenging and unforgettable.
He admitted: “The most snow I had ever seen in my life before was around two inches in Northern Ireland.”