Funding of £700,000 will tackle fall in salmon stocks

The Scottish Government has announced funding of about £700,000 to tackle the slump in Scottish wild salmon stocks.

Ministers said survival rates for salmon at sea have fallen to 5% and the cash will be spent on research and fisheries management to help safeguard stocks.

Among the potential pressures identified are predation, poaching, salmon farming and pollution.

Environment Secretary Roseanna Cunningham said: “The decline in wild salmon numbers is due to a range of complex factors and is of great concern – we must do all we can to safeguard the future of this iconic species.

“The survival rate of salmon during their marine phase has fallen from around 25% to 5% over the last 40 years and while the exact causes of this dramatic loss are unclear, we must do what we can to protect salmon numbers.”

She added: “This investment will accelerate and enhance joint work to try to quantify and mitigate a wide-ranging list of potential pressures on Scottish salmon stocks, such as forestry, hydro, barriers to migration, predation, illegal poaching, salmon farming, invasive non-native species, inshore and offshore developments and diffuse pollution. No single one of these, tackled alone, will secure the recovery of our wild salmon stocks.”

A national programme of sampling to count juvenile salmon numbers in rivers before they head to sea and when they return is among the research to receive £500,000.