Shopkeeper denies buying Dornoch Firth fishing rights
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A ROW over the sale of a salmon netting station in the Dornoch Firth is continuing.
Tain businessman Gregor Macleod, who runs gun and fishing tackle shop R Macleod & Son, was reported in The Northern Times last week as having purchased the Tarlogie and Meikle Ferry net fishings.
There was widespread comment on the internet over the proposed sale, with conservationists concerned about salmon stock.
But it later emerged that Mr Macleod had backed out of the sale at the last minute.
In a statement issued on Tuesday, Mr Macleod said he did not, and never had, owned any netting rights on the Dornoch Firth (See letters, p7). The netting station covers the stretch of water between the mouth of the Edderton Burn and Glenmorangie Distillery.
The area also includes South Meikleferry and the southern end of the Dornoch Bridge.
The station was previously owned by Fortrose resident Robert McKeddie and passed, on his death, to his niece Iona Mackintosh, who works in Inverness.
Coastal netting stations are opposed by conservationists because it is claimed they hamper attempts to conserve the dwindling Atlantic salmon stock. The Kyle of Sutherland District Salmon Fisheries Board, the statutory body which controls the Dornoch Firth water catchment, operate a policy of buying up netting stations when they come on the market in order to mothball them.
Board director Iain McMyn revealed in The Northern Times last week that the board had made an unsuccessful bid for the Tarlogie and Meikle netting station.
Meanwhile it was confirmed this week that Mr Macleod had been in negotiations for the netting station but subsequently withdrew the bid.
However, it was widely understood in the area that Mr Macleod had put in a successful offer.
Kyle of Sutherland Board clerk Gordon Robertson said: "As far as everyone was concerned, Gregor was the successful bidder.
"He told everyone he had bought it. He may technically be right when he says he does not and never has owned netting rights in the firth but he was just a dot away from it."
He described the debacle as "one unholy mess."
An Internet campaign on a thread, now shut down, posted on a salmon fishing forum, queried Mr Macleod’s ethics in seeking to buy a netting station when he is also a member of the Kyle of Sutherland Fisheries Trust, a charity dedicated to improving and raising awareness of salmon in the Kyle.
