Report on decline in salmon and trout stocks ‘is a whitewash’

Salmon and sea trout fishermen condemned as a whitewash a Scottish government report yesterday that concluded that the reasons for the decline in wild salmon stocks was undefined and that there was nothing that can be done to restore them.
The fishermen believe that the scientists who produced the report have been compromised by pressure from ministers. Fish farming, which enjoys government support, is blamed by fishing interests for causing much of the decline in wild salmon.
Jon Gibb, the clerk to the Lohaber District Salmon fishery board, told The Times that it was “an appalling situation” that damage to wild fish was being ignored in order to protect the fish farming industry. He said: “This is quite clearly a whitewash by the government. We find it quite extraordinary that a whole natural resource, an iconic species, is being destroyed on the back of a few jobs.
“We are seeing devastation on the west coast in our salmon stock and the report is a retrograde step. We can’t prove there has been political pressure on the scientists but it won’t be the first time that it has happened and I think this is another instance.”
The lengthy report, entitled Restoration Guidance for West Coast Salmon and Sea Trout Fisheries, comes from the Tripartite Working Group, which was set up and chaired by the Scottish Government to address issues between fish farms and wild fisheries.
The report acknowledged the “substantial” decline in stocks of Atlantic salmon and sea trout in Scotland’s west coast rivers but says that fishery restoration will require “complex multidisciplinary endeavour” and there is a need for scientific assessment of factors affecting marine survival.
It states: “Various potential causes of the fishery declines — both historical and contemporary — can be identified but the nature of the actual cause(s) remain unclear and contentious.”
There was evidence that decline in quality of the marine environment was to blame, and some evidence that salmon farming was implicated in this. However, catch records indicated that the broader scale fishery declines started before salmon farming became established, and were a feature in areas where aquaculture did not exist.
The Association of Salmon Fishery Boards (ASFB), the Rivers and Fisheries Trusts of Scotland (RAFTS) and Atlantic Salmon Trust (AST) are disassociating themselves from the document.
Andrew Wallace, managing director of ASFB and RAFTS, said: “This report conspicuously and inexplicably fails to identify the impact of sea lice, originating from salmon farms, as a primary factor in the decline of west coast salmon and sea trout stocks. This is simply not credible and it flies in the face of the wealth of exhaustive research from Scotland, Norway, Ireland and Canada which is unequivocal in pointing the finger of blame at sea lice.”
Tony Andrews, AST director, of the Atlantic Salmon Trust (AST), said: “We support the main body of the report and the conclusion that restoration of salmon and sea trout stocks will not be achieved through freshwater management measures.
“We are however most disappointed that, whilst the report acknowledges that low marine survival is the single outstanding issue affecting the production of many populations of salmon and sea trout, it does not go on to tackle the question of the impact of sea lice infestation which has been widely recognised as the key factor responsible for the decline stocks of migratory fish in the west Highlands and Islands.”