Salmon and Trout Association: Scottish Policy

S&TA is active in Scotland on several fronts. We sit on the Fisheries Forum which worked towards the production of the Scottish Fisheries and Aquaculture Bill 2007, and continues to regularly debate issues around fisheries management.

S&TA presently focuses on two particular issues – mixed stock salmon netting and the impact of aquaculture on wild sea trout and salmon stocks.

Mixed Stock Netting

S&TA, together with the vast majority of those involved in the management and conservation of Atlantic salmon throughout the Northern hemisphere, is particularly concerned with the impact of coastal mixed stock fisheries on salmon stocks. We believe that, because it is impossible to tell where the fish caught in these nets are bound, their capture has a significant impact on the work undertaken by riparian owners and fisheries interests on individual rivers, to protect and conserve their specific stocks of fish. We are not against netting per se, but wish to see fish allowed to return to their natal rivers, where decisions can be taken by local managers as to whether those particular salmon stocks can sustain limited exploitation by in-river net fisheries.

We are currently leading a campaign with colleagues in other organisations to press the Scottish Government to facilitate an end to mixed stock salmon fisheries. Fishery owners must be compensated for giving up their heritable right to fish, and we wish to facilitate the buy-out of these rights, on a willing buyer, willing seller basis.

S&TA is also represented on the Scottish Government’s recently established forum to look into the issue of mixed stock fishing, along with colleagues from other wild fish organisations and representatives for the netsmen.

Aquaculture

Tighter regulation and voluntary action by the aquaculture industry has resulted in some improvement in the impact of fish farms on wild salmonids, but much still needs to be done to bring salmon and sea trout populations on the Scottish West Coast back to their numbers before the drastic collapses of the 1990s. There are several issues connected to aquaculture:

• Sea lice, parasites which build up on farmed fish in unnaturally high numbers, transfer to wild sea trout and salmon smolts as they enter lochs and the coastal zone on their seaward migrations. Salmon smolts almost certainly die from these infestations on their ocean migrations, while sea trout post smolts become moribund and return prematurely to fish water in an attempt to rid themselves of lice. Losses of both species can be substantial.
• Escapes from aquaculture units allow salmon of farmed origin to run rivers and inter-breed with wild fish. This dilutes gene pools, and produced progeny that are not robust enough to survive the strenuous life cycle of truly wild salmon. Scientific evidence has shown that marine mortality from salmon contaminated by farm fish genes can be much higher than in truly wild stocks.
• Chemicals used in treating diseases and parasite infestations can impact the marine environment around cages. Research has shown that large areas around farms can become wastelands, and that local shellfish populations in particular can be heavily impacted.

S&TA wishes to see:

• The aquaculture industry take further steps towards the eradication of lice from farm units – evidence from Norway suggests that lice averages on farms as low as 0.5 per fish can impact wild salmonids. Regulation should be used if voluntary action is not sufficient.
• The industry to move faster towards the investment in technology which is more efficient in preventing escapes.
• The removal of fish farm sites from lochs and estuaries with runs of wild salmon and sea trout.