Wild Salmon

[Peter M]

I am a coarse angler but i take an interest in all things fishy. An article in the guardian today highlighted the plight of wild salmon migration and got me hot under the collar. Apparently the Irish govt still allows drift netting to catch the salmon and this is putting undue pressure on them as they tend to migrate down the coast of ireland. pressure needs to be put on the irish to stop this practice. over fishing is causing a real problem and all anglers need to take an intrest in these issues. I was pleased that the story appeared in a national braodsheet, we need more publicity like this.

[waterman1013]

Peter

 

The real problem for wild Atlantic salmon is the Greenland fishery, where they are taken in vast numbers, by commercail fleets, while feeding at sea before running back to their native rivers to do what fish do naturally.

 

Coastal nets never made an inpact on wild stocks until this fishery was discovered. Now because we cannot get control of the high seas fishery coastal nets have been bought out by Scottish and North Eastern river fisheries. The Irish are moving in the same direction, but still have healthier runs of wild fish than most Scottish rivers enjoy.

 

Again the wild stocks suffer so that commercial exploiters of the resource, we all own, can catch them and put them into cans for our tables. Value of a wild fish, for processing, £5.00 off the boat, at best, value of a rod caught fish in Scotland £8,000 spent by anglers in the local economy.

 

And marine aquaculture is not the answer to the problem, that simply destroys the bottom of the food chain for all sea fish.

 

Mike

[greg long]

At the moment the greatest danger to wild salmon stocks are the burgeoning salmon farms almost all situated in areas around natural salmon estuaries, the escapees and the associated diseases are liable to decimate the wild stock to the same extent they did to the sea-trout

[Leon Roskilly]

For those non-Guardian readers, here's the article. It's well worth reading.

 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/fish/story/0,736...,889018,00.html

 

Tight Lines - leon Roskilly

Sea Anglers Conservation Network (SACN)

http://www.anglersnet.co.uk.sacn