Loch Leven hosted fly fishing in the 19th century

Kinross Estate is no longer stocking Loch Leven with trout, which are being eaten in large numbers by cormorants.

Landowner Jamie Montgomery said he had been repeatedly refused requests to cull the protected birds.

He said the approach in Scotland was at odds with the way the issue was being faced in England Wales.

The Perthshire estate has been stocking the loch with about 150,000 fish each year, but the cormorants are believed to be eating more fish than can put into the water.

The cost of running the loch's hatchery is also expected to rise to about �100,000 this year because of increasing energy costs.

'Ready meals'

Although the loch once operated 30 boats for anglers, this number will soon drop to only six.

The landowner, Jamie Montgomery, said: "We just cannot continue effectively providing ready meals for the cormorants."

Mr Montgomery said he had applied to ministers without success for a licence to shoot up to 50 cormorants, which are protected by an EU directive.

"We've been turned down and frankly been told not to bother coming back because we're never going to get it - which is at odds with what the authorities down in England and Wales are doing," he said.

"It seems to be one of those European directives that people are interpreting in different ways and we are being particularly draconian about them up here."

'Noticeable decline'

Loch Leven is visited by about 400 cormorants between October and April each year, which consume about 120,000 trout during their stay.

A study undertaken by the freshwater fishery lab in Pitlochry found that between 85% and 90% of the stomach contents of the cormorants' stomach contents contained trout.

John Hood, a board member of the Scottish Anglers National Association, said the number of fish at Loch Leven had very noticeably declined over the last 10 years.