news/editorial

16 November 2014 News/Editorial

There is a balance to be had, almost a duty not to overstate, in writing this editorial or blog, call it what you will.

There can be a conceit, to be avoided at all costs, in beginning to think that what is written here carries more weight than any other opinion…….simply because some are good enough to read it.

At the same time it cannot be dull…….for no-one wants to be dull.

Which brings us to a letter received last week, from the Chairman of the Atlantic Salmon Trust to all its members.

It is a very strange letter.

After posing the question some of us have been asking for some time “Why should the Atlantic Salmon Trust continue to exist?”, it goes on to give the most halting and unconvincing answer and ends with the frankly staggering conclusion that the “AST is once again “punching above its weight”, often taking the lead…..”.

Now there is nothing in principle against AST, indeed it led the way in salmon research in the 1960s to 1980s and fulfilled a leading and crucial role in showing all the rivers what they should be doing to find out more about their rivers and fish….but it has become a victim of its own success, for, throughout the UK, rivers have established their very own bespoke research trusts, well funded for the most part and capable of doing everything and more than the AST could ever do.

AST is well aware of this and pretty much admits in the Chairman’s letter that there is nothing more it can do onshore, within the rivers.

So what can it do?

It has decided, by a startling process of elimination, to go it alone, or so it seems, offshore, into the marine environment, and begin the hideously expensive business of finding out what is happening in the North Atlantic to our smolts, by radio tracking, for we can all agree, it is hoped, that there is a worryingly low return of smolts from the high seas and back into our rivers as adults.

Whereas the return rate in the 1960s could have been as high as 30%, it could now be 10% or even much lower.

AST has ventured into the sea before, with its much trumpeted SALSEA project which was, some would say, interesting, but where many of us part company with it, is that whatever you find out is going on in the North Atlantic, with the one proviso that it is not caused by man overfishing (either deliberately or accidentally as by-catch), there is absolutely nothing we can do about it.

Not only that, but what you find out one year is happening in the North Atlantic, at vast expense, in the form of ocean temperatures, where the prey fish that the salmon feed on are going, the direction of ocean currents and no doubt myriad other things...can just as easily all change the next year, such is the highly dynamic and ever changing nature of the ocean vastnesses.

And radio tracking smolts in the North Atlantic...really? You stick a radio tag in a smolt 6 inches long, for instance when it goes into the sea at Berwick, and then hope to find out what happens to it when it sets off into the wild blue yonder for a year or more; those tags are going to have to have some pretty sensational signal emitting characteristics if they are going to have any chance of being picked up by some boat bobbing about out there; or are they going to use satellite tracking...well those tags really are going to be expensive and most of them will simply go missing (they do when you do radio tracking in rivers, so the loss rate will be magnified 1000 fold in the ocean).

And of course when the radio tags (and its host) do go missing, you have no clue whatever as to what has happened; has it just died, has a seal, cormorant or larger fish eaten it, has it gone outwith all tracking range, has the tag malfunctioned etc etc etc?

I am not alone in having these objections and concerns….but I might forego all of these if AST was working not alone, but in concert with others in the salmon world.

There is the admirable Salmon and Trout Association (S&TA), the many rivers trusts in Scotland, England and Wales (and their coordinating bodies RAFTS and ART) and of course the EA in England and ASFB (Association of Salmon Fishery Boards) in Scotland.

Now if all of these acting together came up with a concerted, well thought out and costed plan with realistic, defined outcomes to find out something about what is happening to our smolts, some objections would remain no doubt, but many more might buy into and even support it.

In an ideal world AST would merge with S&TA.

On its own, AST is giving a very good impression of floundering and its Chairman’s letter has, if anything, only added to that impression.

Which brings us back to where this all started, to balance and responsibility; some may think this an outspoken, unwarranted and unbalanced attack on a force for good in the salmon world...if, hopefully, not dull.

Many more private thoughts are even stronger than these, and all this and more has been said in person to the AST Chairman and his chief executive one day 3 years ago.

Mercury, the messenger, was, as ever, shot that day.

If nothing else, this time, Mercury has flown out of range.