Salmon fishermen have called for urgent action to protect wild salmon in Scotland after catching the lowest number recorded last year.
The latest official figures show that 35,693 Atlantic salmon were caught by fishermen in Scottish rivers last year, the lowest number since recordings began in 1952 and only 75% of the average for the past five years.
The figures for sea trout, a species that uses the same rivers as salmon, are also the lowest in history – 12,636 and 77% of the last average for five years.
Graph showing autumn
Last year’s catch figures were affected by the Covid blockade in the spring of 2021, but the figures are in line with recent trends. In 2018, the last full year before the pandemic, wild salmon catches set the previous record low of just over 37,600. In 2010, fishermen caught over 111,400 salmon.
The data alarmed fisheries experts and environmentalists. Wild salmon and trout are a major species for many mammals and birds, and the declining fish population is harming other creatures such as otters, ospreys and crossbreeds, damaging the wider ecosystem.
Salmon is very sensitive to water temperature and reduced water purity. Their decline is seen as unequivocal evidence that the climate crisis, pollution, fisheries and industrial activities are causing greater damage to the environment.
Alan Wells, director of fisheries management in Scotland, called on the Scottish government to speed up its new strategies to improve and protect salmon stocks. “The latest figures highlight how difficult the situation has become. “We call on the government to fulfill its existing commitments without delay and to go much further in all areas where they have the power to make a difference,” he said.
In January, the government agreed that the wild salmon population was in crisis. He promised to improve water quality, review the implementation of conservation laws, reduce conflicts with human activities at sea and in coastal areas, and step up efforts to protect the marine environment.
Since the 1990s, Scottish fishermen have returned their catches to the river under a voluntary conservation code that is strictly controlled by fisheries organizations and guilds, experts who guide fishermen in many fishing battles.
Along with removing dams and dams, the country’s regional fisheries councils have promised to plant millions of local trees along thousands of miles along the riverbank to lower water temperatures and reduce flash floods. “Trees act like natural umbrellas,” Wales said.
Some fishing activities have examined the stocking of highly depopulated rivers with young salmon reared in hatcheries from local wild stocks, although the strategy remains controversial due to uncertainties about survival rates.
Landowners and salmon experts on the Karen River, a river that flows into Loch Karen in Wester Ross, north of Skye, believe their reintroduction of hatcheries has saved the wild salmon population from near extinction.
A series of very strong waves or floods in Karen in the late 1990s destroyed the young salmon, leaving it with an average catch of only 10 salmon in five years. By 2020, that number had risen to 187.
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Wales said stock recovery programs could work in some rivers, but the greatest emphasis is needed on ensuring that rivers and the wider environment are improved and protected.
“There is not a single golden bullet here,” he said. “What we need to do is take concerted action in a number of areas of pressure and policy. To make sure the salmon bed and board are as good as possible, and we maintain the optimum water temperature for the salmon. ”
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