Archive for January, 2015

NEWS FROM ATLANTIC SALMON TRUST

Friday, January 16th, 2015

2015 AST AUCTION

The 2015 AST auction is probably the best ever. Please visit the auction site which has some beautiful pictures & great lots all in the cause of paying for the AST’s work at sea to bring more of our salmon home.

With about 95% of smolts that leave our rivers dying at sea even a 2% or 3% improvement would see many more fish getting back.

Please support us, and have some fun in the process:

Go to http://www.atlanticsalmontrust.org/auction/mailer/

TA

PS there’s a lot on the Finavon Castle Water. You could bid for that!

 

Copy of Flow into Craigo

Atlantic Salmon Trust Live River Pictures

Thursday, January 1st, 2015
AST LIVE RIVER PICTURES
with Farson Digital Watercams
To subscribe:
please click    www.farsondigitalwatercams.com
Please use the promotional coupon AST-2015

From each annual subscription to AST Live River Pictures, Farson Digital Ltd is donating £5 to AST’s programme of research and conservation. We are extremely grateful for this most generous contribution to our work. This means we can:

  • investigate where, when, and at what stage of their lives at sea, our salmon and sea trout are dying.
  • develop the idea of ‘safe corridors’ for migrating salmon along our coasts and at sea.
  • assess the extent of damage to salmon migrations from commercial trawlers’ by-catch and find new ways of reducing it.
  • support and participate in research into effects of marine renewable energy projects on salmon and sea trout migrations.
  • research and promote new forms of sustainable salmon farming.
  • continue to gather evidence to end mixed stocks coastal netting.
  • find new ways of reducing marine mortality from predation and human activities, where effective action is possible.
  • By working with people and governments ‘wherever the salmon swims’ raise awareness of the challenges faced by wild salmon and sea trout.
  • We know that well over 90% of our salmon are dying at sea.
  • By subscribing to the webcam network You are helping our efforts to bring more healthy salmon and sea trout back to our rivers.
Just click:
www.farsondigitalwatercams.com
and follow instructions
Benefits of Subscribing to Farson Digital Watecams

Free 14-day trial

Try out all the features on offer free – if you don’t wish to continue to subscribe you can opt out within 14 days.
All the information, all the images
You can trawl the archive gallery and have full access to all the images in each of the time periods – plus all the supporting data for each image.
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You can set up water level and rainfall alerts for your favourite locations.
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Save your favourite locations in the dashboard to access the information and images you want straightaway when you log on.
Free App
Be the first to receive our iPhone and Android Apps later this year.
Help support The Atlantic Salmon Trust 

£5 of your £18 annual subscription goes directly to AST

All this for just £18 a year

Click here to subscribe using promotional coupon AST-2015
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New Year Blues

Thursday, January 1st, 2015

NEW YEAR BLUES

There is no point in concealing the hard truth that the wild Atlantic salmon is in danger of extinction, at the very least in its southern range. Already the species is virtually extinct from USA. In the 1970s, Bay of Fundy rivers in Canada had runs of 40,000 salmon annually: they now have less than 200. Portuguese rivers no longer have salmon and the rivers of Galicia and Asturias are on the edge, as are the rivers of southern France, despite heroic efforts by fishery managers.

Rivers such as the Dorset Frome and other English South Coast rivers are already feeling the effects of climate change, as are many un-shaded upland streams further north, in the Dee and Spey catchments in Scotland, for example.

If we are to face the reality of our changing environment we need to deal directly with the issue of the collapse of wild Atlantic salmon stocks.
We must face the question, “is extinction of the species inevitable?” If the answer is “yes”, then, what is the timescale? And what can be done to delay that inevitability, and for how long?

Exif_JPEG_PICTURE

The best of the feeding for our 2 & 3 sea winter salmon is along the west coast of Greenland where this photography was taken by TA in June 2011. Rich feeding for salmon may be severely reduced as ocean warming squeezes the areas where cold water planktonic species thrive. There are underpinning natural cycles such as the North Atlantic Oscillation which changes on a cyclical basis every thirty years or so. It is possible that we are about to witness such a change, the result oif which could be improved feeding areas for salmon i9n the northeast Atlantic Ocean.

If the answer is “No”, can we give the wild salmon time & space for its natural resilience to kick in? and what are the priorities for redressing damage to stocks already done, and protecting stocks under threat, or likely to be so?

2014 – the current status of wild Atlantic salmon stocks.
Anyone with an interest in the species will be aware of the last two years of low catches in the North Atlantic countries, with the notable exception of Russia’s Kola Peninsula. Early returns indicate that 2014 catches in North America, Iceland, Norway, Ireland and the UK were considerably lower than the five year average.

As with most issues in the natural world, the situation is more complex than might at first appear. For example, MSW salmon returning to some Scottish and Irish east coast rivers between February and May arrived in reasonable numbers and were in excellent condition. The Irish River Slaney, for example, had its best spring returns for thirty years, with most fish in prime condition and with average weights of 12lbs to 15lbs. A similar spring season was enjoyed by rods on the Scottish rivers, Tay, North Esk and South Esk. All these fish were caught and returned, while coastal netting of salmon was delayed until April.

In contrast, there is evidence that extreme flooding in the wake of Hurricane Bertha reduced juvenile density considerably in some Scottish upper catchment tributaries. Angling conditions in many North Atlantic seaboard rivers were not conducive to high-catch returns. Grilse returns in European salmon countries were at best variable, in some cases virtually non-existent. Much of this had been predicted by marine ecologists, notably at the Institute of Marine Research, Bergen.

Ecological indicators tell us that the trend of improving spring runs may continue, ‘all things being equal’, by which I am referring to prevailing weather conditions, including drought, extreme flooding, high energy oceanic weather events and rising sea temperatures. Environmental volatility, which is largely unpredictable, can have profound effects on migrations at sea, as well as on freshwater productivity. It is not surprising therefore that some freshwater managers are saying, “there is clearly nothing we can do to improve the situation at sea, so let’s concentrate our efforts on improving the river environment”

The picture is a mixed one, so what are the facts at our disposal? Where are the ‘choke points’ in the life of the wild Atlantic salmon? Can we prioritise threats to survival in terms of the a) seriousness of the risks they pose to salmon survival b) ability of human interventions to increase numbers of returning salmon?

Can human intervention make any difference at all to mitigate the effects of climate change on salmon stocks at sea?

Sidirovka

This photograph is of the River Sidirovka in Russia’s Kola Peninsula. Although it is a fairly small river (about the size of the Scottish Gruinard) it has prolific runs of MSW early salmon, grilse and sea trout – with arctic char and a few hump-backed salmon as well. It is a fine river for two rods to fish from the lakes on the plateau to the estuary on the shore of the Barents Sea. Kola salmon continue to do well despite the continuing downturn in numbers of returning salmon elsewhere in the North Atlantic region.

Here are some facts & anthropogenic factors:
• Numbers of wild Atlantic salmon at sea have declined by more than 60% between 1970 and 2014, and are now extinct in more than 300 North Atlantic seaboard river catchments.

• For every wild Atlantic salmon in the sea, there are more than 200 farmed Atlantic salmon in open net cages, ‘sharing’ the same coastal waters. Recent scientific research indicates that impacts of parasites, pollution and disease from salmon farming on the coastal environment and wildlife may be far greater than previously assessed, and may even affect migratory salmonids much further away than the immediate locality of the salmon farm.

Spring salmon

Spring salmon

• Despite international pressure to put an end to mixed stocks drift and coastal netting, and the continuing decline in killing salmon by anglers, the number of wild salmon killed by human exploitation in the bio-region remains too high for a species under pressure of extinction.

In 2013 for example, one Scottish coastal mixed stocks net fishery killed 7,159 salmon and grilse, while the total number of salmon killed by nets and fixed engines in England and Wales in the same year was 24% above the average of the previous five years.

• The SALSEA project demonstrated that wild Atlantic salmon swim alongside and within shoals of horse mackerel and herring. We therefore know for certain that some salmon, at different stages of their marine phase, are being accidentally caught up in the nets of commercial trawlers. We now need to know the extent of that by-catch, as well as where and when it takes place.

If it is found that the impacts on wild Atlantic salmon stocks are significant, AST will use its position as a full Executive Committee member of the EU’s Pelagic Advisory Council (PELAC) to influence fisheries policy in the direction of salmon conservation.

TA