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Secretary’s AGM Report 2025
The Management Committee met three times since the last AGM, in March, October and January. In between, our sub-committees dealt with their respective remits and I would like to thank the sub-committee convenors for their hard work throughout the season.
We looked at various options for the upgrade of the toilet facilities at our Harray site, but in the end it was decided to leave things as they were. This decision was helped by the appointment of our new caretaker, Ian Tulloch, who did a great job looking after all our sites.
On the subject of toilets, we continued to harangue the OIC about the lack of facilities at Brodgar. I wrote the new OIC convenor in this regard and I did receive a response from one of the Council’s Executive Directors but this was only to say that they would not install a temporary facility and anything permanent was unlikely to be in place until at least 2027. It was suggested that our signage at the Harray site could be beefed up a bit to discourage unwanted visitors looking for relief. This amended signage to include reference to no overnight parking – as camper vans were being increasingly seen late evenings and early mornings.
Concerns were expressed regarding the use of fixed rods by non members at the Loch of Skaill. It was assumed that folk just did not know the loch was private for OTFA members only so we got some signs put in place to make folk aware.
We’ve probably all seen a seal or two in Harray recently. One in particular was photographed hauled out on the Harray site pier. I contacted Nature Scot and Marine Scotland to see what could be done about this issue – if anything. Nature Scot (formerly Scottish Natural Heritage) said they did not do seals!! Marine Scotland said they did, but only if they were a perceived threat to a salmon fishery – and even then, the criteria for obtaining a shooting licence was extremely arduous. In short, they told me that we could still apply for a licence but it was highly likely that this would be refused.
We were saddened to hear about the passing of our committee member and former secretary Stuart Topp. Stuart’s family kindly donated a defibrillator which we in turn we passed on to the Men’s Shed. The family are organising a memorial gathering for Stuart in the Merkister Hotel on 5th April, 12 to 4 pm and all members are invited.
Our attempt to develop a workable site on the Loch of Kirbister remains on the cards. We’ve made contact with Scottish Water in this regard, and, depending on the hoops we must jump through we may look at applying for planning permission. It’s not going to be easy but certainly worth a go.
I had loads of enquiries from visiting anglers, almost all by email but I still get phonecalls too. But the most frequent emails are from the OIC Planning about salmon farming applications. These are most often to do with increasing the size of existing farms rather than new. I forward these emails to our Environment Sub-committee who do a fantastic job in responding as you will no doubt hear in Colin’s report. And with a proposed hydro cable buried in the ground from the back of Finstown to Warbeth, I guess we will be hearing quite a lot from SSEN in relation to the various spawning burn crossing points en route.
Wishing you all tight lines for the season ahead.
Malcolm Russell – OTFA Secretary
February 2025