Marine Directorate established a programme of research to assess the status of freshwater fish, in particular wild Atlantic salmon, from electrofishing data. This included the development of the National Electrofishing Programme for Scotland (NEPS), a generalised random tessellation stratified (GRTS) survey design. NEPS protocols dictate that all species present at the electrofishing survey should be recorded. This dataset provides presence (1) / absence (0) data for NEPS electrofishing surveys carried out in 2018, 2019, 2021 and 2023.
Important notes:
Comprehensive quality control has only been completed for salmon and trout.
Survey designs differ between NEPS 2018/19, NEPS 2021 and NEPS 2023.
Users should familarise themselves with the NEPS survey design, data collection and data entry protocols prior to using these data. These details are provided by These details are provided by Malcolm et al. (2018, 2019, 2023) and Jackson et al. (2025).
For further information on NEPS please see the following web pages: https://www.gov.scot/publications/national-electrofishing-programme-for-...
Citation:
Jackson F.L., Millidine K.J., Glover R.S., Gilbey J, Eagle L.J.B, Fryer R.J., Malcolm I.A. (2026) NEPS Fish Species Presence/Absence 2018, 2019, 2021, 2023. DOI: 10.7489/12404-2
Collaborators
NEPS 2018 was supported by funding from Marine Directorate, SEPA and NatureScot.
NEPS 2019 and NEPS 2021 was funded by Marine Directorate and Crown Estate Scotland (CES).
NEPS 2023 was funded by the Marine Directorate.
The NEPS survey design, project management, data analysis and reporting were funded under Marine Scotland Science Service Level Agreement (SLA) FW02g and ADP739.
The following collaborating organisations are thanked for their valuable efforts in facilitating or delivering data collection for NEPS 2018: West Sutherland Fisheries Trust; Northern District Salmon Fishery Board; Caithness District Salmon Fishery Board; Helmsdale District Salmon Fishery Board; Brora District Salmon Fishery Board; Kyle of Sutherland Fisheries Trust; Cromarty Firth Fisheries Trust; Ness and Beauly Fisheries Trust; Findhorn, Nairn and Lossie Trust; Spey Foundation; The Deveron, Bogie & Isla Rivers Charitable Trust; Ugie District Salmon Fishery Board; Ythan District Fishery Board; River Dee Trust; The Esk Rivers & Fisheries Trust; Tay District Salmon Fisheries Board; Forth Fisheries Trust; Tweed Foundation; The River Annan Trust; Nith Catchment Fisheries Trust; Galloway Fisheries Trust; Ayrshire Rivers Trust; Clyde River Foundation; Loch Lomond Fisheries Trust; Argyll Fisheries Trust; Lochaber Fisheries Trust; Skye & Wester Ross Fisheries Trust; Outer Hebrides Fisheries Trust; Waterside Ecology Independent Ecological Consultants.
The following collaborating organisations are thanked for their valuable efforts in facilitating or delivering data collection for NEPS 2019: West Sutherland Fisheries Trust; Northern District Salmon Fishery Board; Caithness District Salmon Fishery Board; Helmsdale District Salmon Fishery Board; Brora District Salmon Fishery Board; Kyle of Sutherland Fisheries Trust; Cromarty Firth District Salmon Fishery Board; Ness and Beauly Fisheries Trust; Findhorn, Nairn and Lossie Trust; Nairn District Salmon Fishery Board; Spey Foundation; The Deveron, Bogie & Isla Rivers Charitable Trust; Ugie District Salmon Fishery Board; Ythan District Fishery Board; River Dee Trust; The Esk Rivers & Fisheries Trust; Tay District Salmon Fisheries Board; Forth Rivers Trust; Tweed Foundation; The River Annan Trust; Nith Catchment Fisheries Trust; Galloway Fisheries Trust; Ayrshire Rivers Trust; Clyde River Foundation; Loch Lomond Fisheries Trust; Argyll Fisheries Trust; Lochaber Fisheries Trust; Skye & Wester Ross Fisheries Trust; Outer Hebrides Fisheries Trust; University of the Highlands and Islands – The Rivers and Lochs Institute.
The following collaborating organisations are thanked for their valuable efforts in facilitating or delivering data collection for NEPS 2021: West Sutherland Fisheries Trust; Northern District Salmon Fishery Board; Caithness District Salmon Fishery Board; Helmsdale District Salmon Fishery Board; Brora District Salmon Fishery Board; Kyle of Sutherland Fisheries Trust; Cromarty Firth District Salmon Fisheries Board; Ness District Salmon Fishery Board; Beauly District Salmon Fishery Board; Findhorn, Nairn and Lossie Trust; Nairn District Salmon Fishery Board; Spey Foundation; The Deveron, Bogie & Isla Rivers Charitable Trust; Ugie District Salmon Fishery Board; Ythan District Fishery Board; River Dee Trust; The Esk Rivers & Fisheries Trust; Tay District Salmon Fisheries Board; Forth Rivers Trust; Tweed Foundation; Nith Catchment Fisheries Trust; Galloway Fisheries Trust; Ayrshire Rivers Trust; Clyde River Foundation; Loch Lomond Fisheries Trust; Argyll Fisheries Trust; Lochaber Fisheries Trust; Skye and Lochalsh Fisheries Trust; Wester Ross Fisheries Trust; Outer Hebrides Fisheries Trust
The following collaborating organisations are thanked for their valuable efforts in facilitating or delivering data collection for NEPS 2023: West Sutherland Fisheries Trust; Northern District Salmon Fishery Board; Caithness District Salmon Fishery Board; Helmsdale District Salmon Fishery Board; Brora District Salmon Fishery Board; Kyle of Sutherland Fisheries Trust; Cromarty Firth District Salmon Fisheries Board; Ness District Salmon Fishery Board; Beauly District Salmon Fishery Board; Findhorn, Nairn and Lossie Trust; Nairn District Salmon Fishery Board; Spey Foundation; The Deveron, Bogie & Isla Rivers Charitable Trust; Ugie District Salmon Fishery Board; Ythan District Fishery Board; River Dee Trust; The Esk Rivers & Fisheries Trust; Tay District Salmon Fisheries Board; Forth Rivers Trust; Tweed Foundation; Nith Catchment Fisheries Trust; Galloway Fisheries Trust; Ayrshire Rivers Trust; Clyde River Foundation; Loch Lomond Fisheries Trust; Argyll Fisheries Trust; Lochaber Fisheries Trust; Skye and Lochalsh Fisheries Trust; Wester Ross Fisheries Trust; Outer Hebrides Fisheries Trust
Data and Resources
- NEPS Fish species presence absence datacsv
Column - Description
site_name - Unique site identifier
...
Preview Download
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Publisher | |
| Modified | 2026-07-30 |
| Release Date | 2022-03-04 |
| Identifier | 4d2674d4-b116-46e6-acd2-bf81a029b317 |
| Spatial / Geographical Coverage Area | POLYGON ((-9.31640625 54.535027711199, -9.31640625 58.757873846637, -0.966796875 58.757873846637, -0.966796875 54.535027711199)) |
| Temporal Coverage | 2018-07-01 to 2023-11-01 |
| Language | English (United Kingdom) |
| License | UK Open Government Licence (OGL) |
| Data Dictionary | This dataset provides presence (1) / absence (0) data for NEPS electrofishing surveys carried out in 2018, 2019, 2021 and 2023. Site-visit information (site name, Easting, Northing, date fished and area fished) is also provided. Raw data from NEPS were stored in both the Marine Directorate FishObs (2019-2023) and Scottish Fisheries Coordination Centre (SFCC, 2018 only) databases. Substantial data manipulation has been undertaken to harmonise data exports to provide this DOI dataset to underpin further analysis. Users should look to Malcolm et al. (2019) for further details on data manipulation. For full details of the NEPS sample frame (rivers where samples could be allocated), survey designs and analyses see the following scientific reports: Malcolm I.A., Millidine K.J., Jackson F.L, Glover R.S, Fryer R.J. (2019) Assessing the status of Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) from juvenile electrofishing data collected under the National Electrofishing Programme for Scotland (NEPS). Scottish Marine and Freshwater Science, Vol 10 No 2, DOI: 10.7489/12203-1. Malcolm I.A., Millidine K.J, Jackson F.L, Glover R.S Fryer R.J. 2020. The National Electrofishing Programme for Scotland (NEPS) 2019. Scottish Marine and Freshwater Science Vol 11 No 9, DOI: 10.7489/12321-1 Malcolm I.A., Jackson F.L., Millidine K.J, Bacon P.J., McCartney A.G. and Fryer R.J. (2023). The National Electrofishing Programme for Scotland (NEPS) 2021. Scottish Marine and Freshwater Science Reports 14(2 ) pp. 63 doi: 10.7489/12435-1 Jackson F.L., Gilbey J., Eagle L.J.B, Fryer R.J., and Malcolm I.A., (2025). The status of juvenile Atlantic salmon and brown trout populations in Scotland’s rivers: The National Electrofishing Programme for Scotland (NEPS) 2023. Scottish Marine and Freshwater Science Vol 16 No 1, 107p. DOI: 10.7489/12543-1 |
| Contact Name | Scottish Government, Marine Directorate |
| Contact Email | |
| Public Access Level | Public |