Salmon under threat in Scotland

The Salmon and Trout Association (Scotland) has submitted a formal complaint to Europe over the Scottish Government’s failure to comply with European law which aims to protect Atlantic salmon populations in Scottish rivers designated as Special Areas of Conservation under the Habitats Directive.

The lack of progress was exposed recently at the Thirty-First Annual Meeting of the North Atlantic Salmon Conservation Organisation (NASCO) in Saint-Malo, France. The meeting heard that coastal salmon netting is actually increasing in Scotland and that, in stark contrast to almost all other Atlantic salmon producing nations, it has almost no management regime in place to prevent this, nor is there any adequate mechanism to limit catches – whatever the strength or weakness of local populations.