Moray Firth smolt tracking project

“Somewhere on their journey, wild salmon numbers are being decimated. For every 100 salmon that leave our rivers for the sea, less than five return – a decline of nearly 70% in just 25 years.” – AST

We have known for some time that salmon are facing big problems at sea and indeed they could become an endangered species in our lifetime. In order to quantify these impacts on the salmon population the Atlantic Salmon Trust have a project underway to tack smolts from rivers that open to the Moray Firth. 20% of salmon leaving UK rivers do so by this route. The insights gained should be transferable to other salmon populations around the UK.

If you wish to learn more and follow the progress of project there is more information on the Atlantic Salmon Trust’s website and in the project booklet.

Clean river targets unlikely to be met

The following is a link to a BBC news article prompted by the WWF charity’s warning that our rivers are being “used as open sewers”. At present, it states, only 21% of south west rivers reach ‘good’ environmental standards. We seem to be rather more fortunate than the Thames area, where the figure is 3%. However, we do have the highest rates of pollution incidents here in the south west.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-49131405

Beavers

As the beaver reintroduction is happening on a neighbouring river (The Otter) Dart anglers may be interested in the following.

Firstly, here is a recent report on the reintroduction from the BBC:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-40048762

There is no mention of how beavers might affect fish migration so here is a policy statement from the Angling Trust regarding beaver reintroduction that covers that aspect among others.

http://www.anglingtrust.net/news.asp?section=29&itemid=476