It is very sad. This year has been catastrophic
Jeremy Paxman has told of his sadness at the declining numbers of wild salmon in Scotland.
The broadcaster and keen angler says he has endured a “terrible, terrible year” of fishing due to low numbers of salmon in the rivers.
He said: “You won’t find anyone who fishes that will say this year has been anything but catastrophic.
“The weather was fantastic and all the rivers were very low but the numbers of the fish returning to the rivers was also very low.
“They don’t run when there’s no great flow of water.
“You hope that when there’s a lift in the water level then you will see a big run of salmon but they tend to stack up in the estuaries. They weren’t even in the estuaries this year.”
Mr Paxman, who is the author of a book called Fish, Fishing and the Meaning of Life, has been an outspoken critic of salmon farms.
But he believes that although the farms may be linked to a decrease in wild salmon numbers on Scotland’s west coast, they cannot be blamed for the overall decline.
The University Challenge host said: “You can’t blame the whole decline on salmon farms, though they are repellent things.
“There has been a catastrophic decline in salmon numbers but because it has affected east coast, west coast and north coast rivers, you can’t blame salmon farms.
“You can make a connection between the number of salmon farms and the level of wild salmon, but you can’t do it right across the whole country.
“There are endless theories and I’m not going to hold forth on any one of them because I don’t know.
“However, I suspect that it’s something to do with climate change.
“If you talk to any of the people involved on the east coast rivers like the Tweed, the Tay, the Spey, you will find they report exactly the same thing.
“Salmon are magnificent fish and it’s very, very sad to see this decline.”