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Director TDSFB
Guest
Pitlochry Dam Fish Counter
As we have stated in recent Annual Reports, there have been problems with SSE’s fish counter at Pitlochry Dam for several years.
While the Pitlochry Dam counter is not any of our responsibility, we do, of course, have an interest in its output.
During this period we have received and continue to receive queries regarding the counter situation.
While, we reiterate the counter is none of the Board’s responsibility, we have been continually updated of the situation by SSE. We thought it helpful therefore to explain what we understand the current situation to be, based on our discussions with SSE.
For some years prior to 2018, SSE had been trying to improve the output from the counters at Pitlochry and elsewhere, for example, by trying to provide photographs of each fish as they passed through and other environmental data. This could even help differentiate between salmon and grilse etc and was welcomed by us.
In 2018, SSE upgraded their counters to a “Mark 12” which would be a big advance and indeed provide us with a wealth of data never possible before. Unfortunately, it became apparent that some aspect of the upgraded system was not working as intended. Following manual observation of fish passing through the counter tube, SSE found in 2020 that of the order of a third of fish were not being registered.
However, since then SSE have commissioned further improvements. A new Mark 14 counter was developed and trialled at Pitlochry in late 2022 and is currently now operating. We profess no expertise in fish counting technology but understand fine tuning is necessary to ensure fish are accurately detected. In April 2023 we understand that verification work indicated changes to the settings were required and these were duly done, however counts at Pitlochry for most of April were not recorded by the MK14.
Hopefully, now in May 2023, the counter is working accurately.
However, in addition to this, for several years SSE have been involved in the development of a video system with Artificial Intelligence recognition. Initially developed for identifying puffins, this has been adapted to recognise passing salmon (see links here and here). This revolutionary system was trialled at Pitlochry in 2022 and has a full video data for the majority of 2022 and has been running all this spring too. We understand there are still some issues to be resolved with the fish recognition, but, once resolved, we understand that SSE will then process all the footage from 2022 and 2023 which will provide counts for these periods. We understand this should be completed in the next few months and thereafter data will be available on an ongoing basis.
We also understand that the data from the AI system, which will include live streaming of fish in the fish pass, a video loop of the last ten fish observed by the AI, plus historical summary data, will be a centre point of a new display area currently being constructed at Pitlochry Dam.
It is very clear to us that SSE have been very active, despite the interruption of Covid, in trying to find a solution to the recent unfortunate issue.
Hopefully, in due course there will be a facility like no other and we understand a roll out of these new systems has already commenced, replacing other SSE counters with systems we can all have confidence in.
Statement from SSE
“At SSE Renewables, we are very proud of our ongoing commitment to protecting and enhancing natural habitats as we manage and operate our hydro portfolio. We’ve been successfully counting, monitoring and supporting the passage of fish populations at Pitlochry since 1952.
We have faced some challenges in the past few years due to inaccuracies encountered with the MK12 system, which were discovered and communicated to stakeholders in 2020. However, building on our longstanding record of success, we continue to invest time, resource and effort to further enhance the accuracy of our fish counting operations, deploying the latest, innovative technology across our sites as part of an ongoing project.
The new Observation Point at Pitlochry Dam and Power Station, due to open in summer 2023, will include this latest best-in-class technology. This will enable stakeholders and visitors to view fish counter statistics and watch the salmon journey via videos of fish movements recorded by the new counter and the live feed from our underwater cameras.”
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