New camera on River Leven to monitor water levels without visiting in person

The River Leven Angling Club has been supported in its venture with funding from Green Action Trust through the Levenmouth Connectivity Project, while Fife Council’s Local Community Planning Budget has also contributed to the £2600 price tag.

Drinks firm Diageo has given space for the camera’s location near its distillery. It joins a network of webcams now in place up and down the UK, providing real-time video feeds and data including river heights, rainfall, tide times and weather.

As a result, the webcam images are publicly available and can be used by anyone. For the club specifically, it will allow anglers of all abilities to view the river and assess water height for safety before they decide to fish.

Brian McGlashan, members secretary, said: “We’re really pleased to see the camera up and running, and I think the effort put in by everybody will be worth it. Our members, and any other interested parties, now only need to check the website and can determine if it is safe to fish or not. We’ve tried for years to get some funding for this project, so we’d just like to thank everyone for their help in making it happen.”

The club not only promotes fishing on both the River Leven and the River Ore, but it is determined to maintain the river’s general health for current and future generations.

Sarah Macdonald project manager of the Restoring the River Leven Project which helped support this work, added: “Plans to adapt the Kirkland Dam to enable better fish passage up and downstream and full removal of the Burn Mill Dam will have a significant and positive impact on local fish populations, allowing species such as trout, salmon and eel among others to develop and thrive."

All fishing along the River Leven is now compulsory catch and release, meaning all fish must be carefully returned to the river unharmed.

To view the feed from the Cameron Bridge camera, visit https://www.farsondigitalwatercams.com/locations/cameron-bridge-leven.