Salmon and Trout Association: Blog

June 2009

The annual North Atlantic Salmon Conservation Organisation (NASCO) meeting took place in Norway recently. This is where all the countries in the Northern hemisphere with salmon rivers come together at Government level to set quotas for the marine fisheries around Greenland and Faroes, and debate other issues to do with salmon conservation. The NGOs have a big part to play in proceedings, and our Chairman (my predecessor at S&TA, Chris Poupard), almost uniquely amongst inter-Government forums, sits at the top table with the other Heads of Delegation.

The slightly worrying aspect of NASCO, and forums like it, is the carbon footprint left in the wake of all the delegations – including the NGOs – attending. You could argue that serious decisions need to be taken to help protect wild salmon, if that footprint is to be justified. Well, sometimes they are, but often Government delegations fall short of being as decisive as salmon deserve.

NGO influence has been mixed over recent years. The hard time we gave the Irish Republic over their drift net fishery, capitalising on the great work done by Brian Marshall and the Wessex Salmon & Rivers Trust, helped bring about the closure of that highly damaging mixed stock fishery. However, Norway, Scotland, Northern Ireland and even England still have mixed stock fisheries on their coasts and, although noises are being made in the right direction from respective governments, they are all still killing fish indiscriminately, regardless of the strength or weakness of the river stock from which they originate.

There always seems to be an excuse from Governments for not acting swiftly to protect wild species and their habitats. Socio-economics are usually trundled out, regardless of the fact that it is almost always human impact which has caused the problem in the first place. If we are going to address the major environmental issues facing us on a global scale, we have to change our collective attitude towards them. This will inevitably mean making socio-economic compromises, otherwise decision makers will continue to prevaricate over the importance of this or that ‘priority’ group or industry, and we will continue to struggle to protect our natural resources. And as Mark Everard states so forcefully in his recent book, The Business of Biodiversity, if we fail to recognise human inter-dependence with the Earth’s natural resources, we are ultimately doomed as a species ourselves. Every industry, business, service or any other human activity depends in some way on natural resources, and if we squander them at a non-sustainable rate, sub rocket science tells us that they must run out at some point.

Squandering natural resources leads me on to Charles Clover’s book and recently released film, The End of the Line. For those who have missed the tremendous publicity surrounding the film, it deals with over fishing of global stocks on an utterly ridiculous scale, with the world’s fishing fleet being about four times bigger than it should be to exploit wild stocks sustainably. Basically, if fisheries management does not change drastically in the very near future, there will be little left in the oceans by 2050, other than plankton, worms and jelly fish.

The problem is starkly portrayed in the film by the issues surrounding the iconic endangered species, the blue fin tuna. ICES scientists advise no more than a world quota of 15,000 tonnes if the species is not to deteriorate further, and 10,000 tonnes if it is to begin recovery. So, what do governments do? Set a quota of some 30,000 tonnes! And do they police it? Do they hell! Last year, an estimated 76,000 tonnes of blue fin tuna were landed worldwide, and there is a strong suspicion that Mitsubishi, the massive Japanese company, is stock-piling frozen blue fins. The reasoning is simple; if the species collapses completely, the Japanese will pay almost anything to continue buying blue fin for their beloved sushi, and so Mitsubishi will make a killing from their freezers – literally. Remember that, if you are about to buy anything made by that particular company!

We can stop our relentless slide towards the destruction of aquatic species. Humpbacked whales have recovered from some 5,000 to a present 70,000 individuals, because we decided to stop killing them. Socio economics haven’t suffered either; we have gradually realised that people will pay more to go afloat and watch live whales than the animals are worth boiled down for their oil. Likewise, coral reefs, the biggest living organisms on Earth, are far more sustainably valuable to local communities by attracting visiting divers and tourists, than if they are fished out for short term gains.

If you get the chance, watch or read The End of the Line. Like Mark Everard in The Business of Biodiversity, Charles Clover is giving us a timely warning that we haven’t much time left in which to take some fairly basic decisions – either we learn to live in harmony with the world’s environment and natural resources, and recognise our total dependence on them, or we perish. Perhaps the humpbacks will take over then, and have more intelligence about the way in which they manage things!

Salmon & Trout Association has a serious stake in this argument. Apart from the fact that salmon, sea trout and other anadromous species rely on the oceans for some part of their life cycle, the issues facing freshwater environments are just the same as those in the sea. If we fail to manage them properly, the dependent habitats and species will die away. We have a chance to do something about that now; as anglers or anyone else with an interest in the future well being of the aquatic environment. A membership of, or donation to, S&TA is a great way of playing your part – and you can do either or both on this web site.

Meanwhile, the NGOs have decided to try and limit our impact on the environment by sending a smaller group to future NASCO meetings. Not much perhaps, but if the group is fully briefed from all interested organisations, it can be just as effective in helping to protect salmon – and the reduced carbon will play its part in conserving the environment on which salmon, and all other life, depends.

Archive

April 2009 - Paul Knight
February 2009 - Attitudes
January 2009 - Moral Dilemmas