It is funded by local District Salmon Fishery Boards, landowners and salmon farms. Further funding has been acquired from other charitable trusts. Maps of the Wester Ross river system , and fish farms in the Wester Ross Fisheries Trust areas are available as gif images. Catch records are being analysed from rivers, lochs and netting stations to try and establish the pattern of stock declines. A major concern is the decreasing average size of sea trout and salmon, which may indicate a deterioration of marine feeding due to commercial over-fishing of their natural prey such as sandeels.
Smaller fish produce fewer eggs, and therefore fewer young.
Electrofishing surveys have been carried out in all catchments to establish the densities of young salmon and trout. This survey, first conducted in 1997 will be repeated every summer so that any changes can be identified and monitored. In several Wester Ross rivers sea trout have all but disappeared, and it will be necessary to assist their recovery. As a model for the restoration of wild sea trout throughout the West Highlands the Scottish Office Freshwater Fisheries Laboratory has set up the Shieldaig Sea Trout Project at Shieldaig on Loch Torridon. Adult sea trout from Shieldaig and other systems are trapped and stripped of their eggs, which are hatched in captivity with the help of Inverness Technical College s Seafield Centre at Kishorn.