Want to do something positive to help Salmon stocks recover?
Have a little look at what I believe to be the only project that can honestly say, with almost 100% certainty, has helped salmon recover over the past 20 years. Despite being on the west coast and situated around fish-farms, The River Carron has a positive vibe about it and has very much bucked the downward trend seen in wild salmon over the last 30 or more years. But why?
The film is almost 50 minutes long, so you will need an evening or some spare time to watch. However, it’s worth it as it highlights what happens when you have practical people working alongside the scientific community, importantly with the same goals and agenda, which in this case was to repopulate the river Carron after a series of floods some years back caused massive loss to the juvenile population in the river. Now where have we seen and heard this over the past 30 years? You’ve guessed it, from almost everyone(without an agenda) working on most rivers in The UK.
The film is an account, not only of how they quickly took the river back from the brink, but in the face of opposition from the scientific community (with other agendas), how, in the last 8 years they have quietly used science, particularly DNA sampling of hatchery fish to prove, when properly run in a particular river system, hatcheries can and do make a difference and can be targeted in the hatchery creating better genetic diversity within that population…The well being of salmon in any rive is all about numbers, “understanding the population” and having enough fish.
At this moment in time we have so many rivers in Scotland where at one time there was a thriving salmon population, where now, due to apathy, neglect, extremely poor understanding of its required population and pathetically poor scientific input, there is nothing! A national disgrace and one where I truly believe all the perpetrators should never work another day in fisheries management. Their utter incompetence has cost Scotland dearly in jobs and potential income. A mass cull of this Incompetence is long overdue and required right now.
This should leave the door open on every river in Scotland for a complete overhaul of how we deal with this business, a complete change in how our rivers are managed, one where the views and opinions of people working on the ground (practical people) is not simply ignored, but, as they have done and been successful with on the Carron, taken on board and used to restore the salmon population. If anyone has an opinion different to this I’d love to hear on what grounds they have this as I can say 100% degree of certainty, the present system has failed both the salmon and the communities relying on them.
Our sector should not be supporting 2500 jobs, it should be at least 5000! It shouldn’t provide £80-90m to the Scottish economy, it should be at least £250m.
I’ve been lucky to travel all over looking for salmon but my roots are in Scotland where I don’t believe, I know we have all the tools in the box to make the above happen. We have the most fantastic culture and history in Salmon, Sea Trout and Brown Trout fishing. We have the most wonderful rivers and Lochs. An amazing infrastructure of Hotels, B&Bs and Guesthouses, amazing Sea Food, you name it we have it. All we need to do to turn the above into a reality is embrace this amazing scientific/practical work that’s going on here with some of the best Scientists all pulling in one direction with people on the river to quickly restore the salmon populations to decent levels.
No matter how others want to paint a negative picture or discredit this project, the Facts remain, It has worked, there is a short term fix and they have the scientific evidence to back up their statements. The DNA sampling is ongoing. The 2014 year class shows the hatchery to be a significant contributor to the rivers salmon run. Another round of sampling will back up the first study.
I said at the beginning, anyone who’d like to help or know more about the DNA sampling should get in touch with Alasdair here - info@carronconservation.scot Please take time and listen to the video and share it far and wide. It will be the best thing you do for salmon today. Click here for film https://youtu.be/jMUhy21wCV0 The time to help salmon in a positive way is now and for the first time I can see something positive and not simply more nonsensical money making, empire building bullshit.