Record low wild salmon catch in Scotland alarms ecologists

Record low wild salmon catch in Scotland alarms ecologists

Source: theguardian

6/1/2022

Credit: Epicscotland/Alamy

Salmon anglers have called for urgent action to protect Scotland’s wild salmon after the lowest number on record were caught last year.

The latest official data shows that 35,693 Atlantic salmon were caught by anglers on Scottish rivers last year, the lowest number since records began in 1952 and just 75% of the average over the last five years.

The figures for sea trout, a species that uses the same rivers as salmon, were also the lowest on record, at 12,636 and 77% of the latest five-year average.
Last year’s catch figures were affected by Covid lockdowns during spring 2021, but the data is consistent with recent trends. In 2018, the last full year before the pandemic, the wild salmon catch set the previous record low of just over 37,600. In 2010, anglers caught over 111,400 salmon