Mixed response to the Scottish Government's new Wild Salmon Strategy which aims to bring the Scottish wild salmon population back from crisis point
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There was a mixed response to last week's announcement of an ambitious strategy which aims to bring the Scottish wild salmon population back from crisis point.
Atlantic salmon is an iconic species featuring highly among the wildlife readily associated with Scotland at home and abroad.
Salmon are affected by a wide range of pressures, some at sea, but many others acting within the Scottish freshwater and coastal environments – a key contributory factor appears to be climate change.
The strategy highlights five priority themes for action, including:
• improving the condition of rivers;
• managing exploitation including the effectiveness of deterrents to poachers;
• understanding and mitigating pressures salmon face in the marine and coastal environment;
• international collaboration;
• and developing a modernised policy framework.
However, the Salmon and Trout Conservation Scotland has responded branding the Scottish Government’s strategy as being "too little, too late".
Group director Andrew Graham-Stewart said: "Regrettably, the detail within the Scottish Government’s new Wild Salmon Strategy provides little cause for optimism."
He said that the strategy relied on a great deal of further research and the timescales were far from ambitious. He added: "For example, the strategy does not, in itself, change anything in-river, with the aim being to produce an ‘implementation plan’ at some stage within the next 12 months."
Mr Graham-Stewart said the strategy emphasised the Scottish Government’s commitment to "playing an active role in the effective functioning of NASCO and the development and implementation of NASCO resolutions, agreements and guidelines".
He added: "However, no mention is made of the Scottish Government failure, over 18 years, to meet NASCO’s 2003 resolution on salmon farming impacts that ‘there is no increase in sea lice loads or lice-induced mortality of wild salmonids attributable to the farms’."
However, the Missing Salmon Alliance (MSA), a coalition of five salmon conservation groups, welcomed the Scottish Government’s Wild Salmon Strategy.
Mark Bilsby, the chief executive of the Atlantic Salmon Trust which is an MSA member, said: “We support the ambition in the strategy to explore new means of investment in Scotland’s rivers, including through corporate, social and environmental responsibility.
"In order to deliver the strategy in full, funding the urgent actions required to address the pressures facing wild salmon is a key issue.
"The partners in the Missing Salmon Alliance look forward to contributing to this workstream and helping to deliver these crucial improvements to Scotland’s rivers.”
