Salmon Conservation

International scientific research has shown that Atlantic salmon populations are currently under threat. Numbers of salmon returning to many Northern Ireland rivers are too low to be sustainable. Research suggests that a range of inter-related factors have contributed to the poor status of the stocks including degraded in-river habitat, pollution, predation and climate change. Significantly reduced survival at sea in recent years gives considerable cause for concern, especially when considered with the other threats to coastal and freshwater survival. DCAL has a responsibility to conserve salmon by managing impacts, including angling and commercial fisheries. Work to manage these impacts is given high priority and is on-going.

This worrying trend is mirrored around the sphere of North Atlantic 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 the Department pursues a strategic approach to attempt to address the decline. The strategy is based on NASCO resolutions and agreements founded on the precautionary approach and.principles of sustainability. The core concept is to establish spawning targets at a river and regional level to ensure that in most rivers in most years sufficient adult salmon are spawning to maximise output of smolts from freshwater. Index rivers are monitored for compliance with conservation targets and where these are not being attained the reasons are researched and a programme of measures designed to address them is adopted.

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