Archive for January, 2014

The state of the wild Atlantic salmon

Wednesday, January 29th, 2014
THE BEST WORKER IN EUROPE
A poem by Ted Hughes
Ted Hughes was Poet Laureate from 1984 until his untimely death at the age of 68 in 1998. He is widely regarded as one of the finest poets of his generation. Ted Hughes was a passionate lover of wilderness and the wild Atlantic salmon. This poem  is an elegy for the lost innocence of the wild salmon smolt, bringing the bounty of the ‘Gallery of Marvels’ back to our rivers, and into our hands.
From my point of view, Ted Hughes was the most effective champion of the wild Atlantic salmon. His home was in Devon and he fished his local river, the Exe. He also fished in Scotland extensively, and also for steelhead in the wilds of western Canada. He was a friend and supporter of the Atlantic Salmon Trust and dedicated the poem, ‘The Best Worker in Europe’, to the Trust in 1985. He and Charles Jardine got together with AST to publish a limited edition (156 numbered copies) of the poem with three illustrations.
Here is the poem, which is of course highly relevant to the state of our wild salmon today:
The Best Worker in Europe
The best worker in Europe Is only six inch long
You thought he’d be a bigger chap?
Wait till you hear my song, my dears,
Wait till you hear my song.
No Union cries his Yea or Nay
He works for all, both night and day,
With neither subsidy nor pay.
He comes out of a heap of stones
Like some old-fashioned elf.
And all he asks is plain water,
Such as you drink yourself, my dears,
Such as you drink yourself.
Two years toiling secretly He fits his craft, without a sigh
To rest his head  or close his eye.
And then one day he’s off to sea.
And only six inch long
Into the Black Hole under the Ocean,
Rows himself along, my dears,
He rolls himself along.
To Hell with Russian, Viking, Hun!
This great-hearted simpleton
Takes the whole Atlantic on.
He hauls his trawl from Scilly Isles
To the subarctic shore.
No overheads, no crew to pay
Whose wives will cry for more, my dears,
Wives always cry for more.
Through storm and freeze, with cheerful grin,
Candlefish and Capelin,
He crams the Ocean’s goodness in.
A catch that all but splits his seam!
Although, like a magician,
He’s magnified his mass by ninety
(He too’s gone a-fishin’, my dears,
He too’s gone a-fishin’).
Such a God-like magic, one’s
Suddenly summed in millions
And understated metric tonnes.
Then in from Ocean’s curve he brings
His National Gross Achievement.
Even the miracle of two fishes
Cries: ”Tis past believement, my dears,
‘Tis simply past believement!’
Nobody’s had to lift a hand!
No prayer, no contract, no command,
And he could feed the entire land!
Nobody has to lift a finger
Or to wet a shoe!
This is the worker for the job that
God alone could do, my dears,
That God alone could do.
What a production line, where he
Processes the open sea
To solid feast, and delivers it free.
The best worker in Europe
Is only six inch long –
Suddenly all his labours fail.
But still he sings: ‘What’s wrong, my dears?
I’ll tell you what’s wrong.
My respiration, my circulation,
Compulsory-purchased by the Nation,
Are now the sewers of your Civilisation.
God help the slave’, sings the Salmon Smolt,
‘Who is owned by everyone
The Donkey used, flogged, owned by all
Is protected by none, my dears,
He is protected by none –
And the wolf takes him easily.
O every wave upon the sea
Carries a wolf that lives on me.’
Ted Hughes 1985

Memory of a Fine Spring Salmon

Saturday, January 4th, 2014
Photo: MEMORY OF A FINE SPRING SALMON</p><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />
<p>I was looking through some photographs of salmon caught at Finavon during 2013 and found the one in the picture (photo taken with a mobile while keeping the salmon in the water to release it safely: hence the poor photo!). This 17lbs spring salmon was caught by John Wood in the Beeches on a very small Willie Gunn in April 2013.</p><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />
<p>These early running salmon arrive in the pools of Finavon Castle Water any time from March onwards. The best time to fish for them is when the water temperature starts to climb in April and into May. All these early arrivals are multi sea-winter salmon which means that they stayed at sea for more than one winter. Multi sea -winter salmon feed far away from Scotland's shores, unlike our grilse (one sea-winter salmon) which tend to feed near Iceland or in the Norwegian Sea. </p><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />
<p>This beautiful two or three-winter salmon, fresh from the sea and in prime condition, probably spent nearly two years in the fjord waters of west Greenland where there are huge quantities of prey species, including squid, pipefish and capelin. When they are ready to return to their native river, after putting on kilos of muscle and fat, these fish leave the Greenland coast and swim all the way back across the Atlantic Ocean - a distance of more than 2,500 miles - and back into their native river.</p><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />
<p>These multi sea-winter fish are in short supply, and their numbers continue to decline. They are far and away the most valuable group of salmon and command huge prices (up to £60 per Kg) at Billingsgate and in city restaurants. The fact is that for every 100 smolts (small & young salmon leaving fresh water for the first time) that leave their native river only about 5 return as adult fish. The rest die at sea. </p><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />
<p>It is ironical that, at the time when Scotland is producing more than 150,000 tons of farmed salmon, a very small number of people are legally still killing wild spring salmon in coastal nets, and in the process endangering their very existence. Isn't it time the law was changed? Shouldn't there be strict quotas at the very least? Or shouldn't we grasp the nettle and close down the most fragile fisheries completely (rods and nets)?</p><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />
<p>Anglers at Finavon carefully return all these salmon alive to the river. They represent the future. They are our broodstock. They are also the most beautiful fish it is possible to imagine! I leave the following question hanging in the air..."shouldn't we be leaving these fragile spring fish to enter their rivers without any threat of rods or nets to hinder their progress to their spawning locations?"</p><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />
<p>TA 3/1/2014
17lbs salmon caught in Beeches Pool in April 2013 by John Wood.
I was looking through some photographs of salmon caught at Finavon during 2013 and found the one in the picture (photo taken with a mobile while keeping the salmon in the water to release it safely: hence the… poor photo!). This 17lbs spring salmon was caught by John Wood in the Beeches on a very small Willie Gunn in April 2013.
These early running salmon arrive in the pools of Finavon Castle Water any time from March onwards. The best time to fish for them is when the water temperature starts to climb in April and into May. All these early arrivals are multi sea-winter salmon which means that they stayed at sea for more than one winter. Multi sea -winter salmon feed far away from Scotland’s shores, unlike our grilse (one sea-winter salmon) which tend to feed near Iceland or in the Norwegian Sea.
This beautiful two or three-winter salmon, fresh from the sea and in prime condition, probably spent nearly two years in the fjord waters of west Greenland where there are huge quantities of prey species, including squid, pipefish and capelin. When they are ready to return to their native river, after putting on kilos of muscle and fat, these fish leave the Greenland coast and swim all the way back across the Atlantic Ocean – a distance of more than 2,500 miles – and back into their native river.
These multi sea-winter fish are in short supply, and their numbers continue to decline. They are far and away the most valuable group of salmon and command huge prices (up to £60 per Kg) at Billingsgate and in city restaurants. The fact is that for every 100 smolts (small & young salmon leaving fresh water for the first time) that leave their native river only about 5 return as adult fish. The rest die at sea.
It is ironical that, at the time when Scotland is producing more than 150,000 tons of farmed salmon, a very small number of people are legally still killing wild spring salmon in coastal nets, and in the process endangering their very existence.
Isn’t it time the law was changed?
Shouldn’t there be strict quotas, at the very least?
Shouldn’t we close down the most fragile fisheries completely (rods and nets)?
Anglers at Finavon carefully return all these salmon alive to the river. They represent the future. They are our broodstock. They are also the most beautiful fish it is possible to imagine! I leave the following question hanging in the air…”shouldn’t we be leaving these fragile spring fish to enter their rivers without any threat of rods or nets to hinder their progress to their spawning locations?”
TA 3/1/2014