23 February 2014 News/Editorial
Orri Vigfusson has turned his guns on the Scottish Government. They are big guns and he is, quite rightly, out to make trouble.
First, for allowing Scottish west coast salmon farming to spiral out of control in seeking to satisfy China’s insatiable appetite, and in the process ruining the sea trout and salmon rivers there with sea lice proliferation which kill wild smolts. This has been going on for years but as farmed fish production increases, lice infestation gets worse.
More on this another time.
Secondly, for allowing indiscriminate interceptory netting to continue in and around the north and east of Scotland, these nets catching salmon from all rivers without having any idea which river they are destined for. It is, accordingly, impossible to know how many fish they are killing, even if one assumes they record all the fish they kill, and from which rivers, which makes sensible individual catchment based management impossible.
It is this last one upon which I will elaborate here.
Orri’s point is this.
His organisation, the Iceland based North Atlantic Salmon Fund (NASF), has for many years negotiated basic subsistence fishing agreements with the Greenlanders and Faroese on the grounds that salmon in Scotland and elsewhere are under threat. But, and it is a huge but, this argument is wholly unsustainable if the host countries like Scotland not only continue to allow indiscriminate interceptory netting off its own shores, but even encourage such activity by giving large financial grants to those netting practitioners who operate these interceptory nets.
The Greenlanders and Faroese say to themselves “Why on earth should we agree not to start full scale commercial netting again if all the salmon which we save are simply scooped up and killed by Scottish nets, just before the fish reach their home rivers?”
And that is the very real threat, that the Greenlanders and Faroese will start again if Scotland does not put its house in order and quickly.
Because the evidence is that such home based interceptory netting will get worse unless the Government intervenes to stop it. I am told that defunct shore based netting stations, not operated for years, are being bought up by these same netting operators with a view to increasing their activity and the number of fish they kill.
Matters have reached breaking point which is why, I imagine, Orri has decided to make such strong and uncompromising statements.
So where is a sensible, workable, sustainable policy on netting to be found, and what is it?
The ASFB (Association of Scottish Salmon Fishery Boards), of which the Tweed is a member, has long maintained that any harvesting of salmon should only take place within each river catchment, by its own nets and rods, so that those who manage each river can then assess whether there is indeed a harvestable surplus…….something it has long been impossible for Tweed, and other rivers, to do sensibly because so many, untold and unknown numbers, of its fish have been caught miles away in the north east drift net fishery, off the Northumberland coast, and in the interceptory nets off the east coast of Scotland.
In other words, each river should decide, based on its returning population, what level of predation by rods and nets is acceptable/sustainable, and at which times of year, and that there should be no human predation outwith the river catchment.
This sound management principle is almost within reach with the cessation of high seas netting, and the near demise of all drift netting around the UK and Ireland….BUT we are left with these Scottish coastal nets, undoubtedly interceptory and indiscriminate, and the Greenlanders and Faroese are flexing their muscles; they will start high seas interceptory commercial netting again unless Scotland stops its own equivalent.
Now I am no fan of netting, but if you were to ask if the level of netting we have on Tweed now is acceptable, I would say yes EXCEPT for the coastal nets between Berwick and Holy Island, which, like all coastal nets, are interceptory. Most of the fish they catch may well be from Tweed, but by no means all.
It is very straightforward, netting should only happen within the confines of a river system, and not outwith its river mouth or estuary.
The Scottish Government should be doing everything it can to support Scotland’s unique natural resources and its peerless, world reknowned salmon fishing rivers in particular, and not encouraging those who would do them harm…..to be clear that is those who operate these interceptory nets and at whom Orri is firmly setting his sights.
Orri is not to be trifled with; it should make for some interesting watching, and I know who my money is on.
He deserves our unreserved and whole hearted support.
He has mine.
As a footnote, and slightly lighter fare, can I recommend Malcolm Campbell’s blog on the Lees beat pages of this site (“Malcolm’s Fishing Reports”) this week, beginning 17th February 2014 (or indeed any week). In plugging it, I of course run the risk of nepotism, favouritism or indeed numerous other…isms, but if you like particular tales of all sorts of things, largely other than fishing, then please take a look at his stories of uncatchable moles, tame otters, egrets, seals, dead rats and (grey) squirrels, amid much curious human behaviour. http://www.tweedbeats.com/beats/the_lees/blog
From the sunshine of Cape Town, it made me smile; wherever you are, I hope it does the same for you.
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