Salmon Conservation

Ongoing research and monitoring continues to suggest that salmon stocks within Northern Ireland, excluding the Foyle catchment controlled by the Loughs Agency, remain at low levels.  A range of inter-related factors have contributed to the poor status of the stocks including degraded in-river habitat, pollution, drainage works and predation by cormorants and seals.  Management actions by the Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure (DCAL) and the Fisheries Conservancy Board have reduced the impact of angling and commercial fishing exploitation.  However, the significantly reduced marine survival noted since 1998 continues and gives considerable cause for concern, especially when considered with the other threats to coastal and freshwater survival.  Marine survival figures for River Bush wild salmon smolts indicated that 31.2% returned to the coast as salmon (grilse) in 1997, whereas in 2005 there was only a 6.8% return.

This worrying trend is mirrored around the sphere of North Alantic countries and the North Atlantic Salmon Conservation Organisation (NASCO), an inter-governmental body established by treaty drawing it's membership from USA, Canada, Greenland, the European Union and other countries, has encouraged its members to adopt a precautionary approach to salmon management.  Officials from DCAL together with fisheries scientists from the Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute (AFBI), form part of the EU delegation to NASCO.

In response to the call for a precautionary approach, DCAL pursues a number of remedial and new measures to address the decline.  DCAL and the FCB have introduced a Salmon Management Plan (file size 577Kb) drawn up by fisheries scientists. The plan is broadly based on NASCO recommendations and the precautionary approach.  The core concept of the Plan is to establish spawning targets at a river and regional level.  The central aim of management is to ensure that in most rivers in most years sufficient adult salmon are spawning to maximise output of smolts from freshwater. The river or catchment is monitored for salmon numbers (electro-fishing for fry and fish counters for adult salmon) and where levels are not being attained the problem is identified and addressed.