news/editorial

28 March 2021 News/Editorial

With the exception of a small rise on Saturday, the river was perfect all week but fewer than 40 salmon were caught. Nothing to do with fishing effort, as yet there are not many fish in, or coming into, the river.

More remarkable is the lack of kelts. Some will blame the floods washing them away. Those of my age, and older, will know that winter floods are as old as time, yet we used to be plagued with kelts in the spring. More likely, the absence of fresh run autumn fish means that nothing is spawning from mid December into January. The vast preponderance of summer fish spawn in late October, November and early December, so have all long gone (or died) by the time we start fishing in February. We used to catch baggots and kippers in February, March and April, now there will be a whole generation who have no idea what they are (unspawned hen and cock (autumn) fish which are caught the following spring). Even more likely, the non cognoscenti will count a February baggot, rarer than hen’s teeth, as a springer when caught.

As for next week, an unsettled start could mean little fishing until Wednesday, but it should calm down as we get towards Easter. Clocks have changed, longer and longer evenings are here, warmer weather somewhere over the horizon, and Covid (we pray) in permanent retreat. There is much to look forward to.

And the fish might begin to appear.

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You know that old one that goes something like “mine enemy’s enemy is my friend”? My son Nick sent me the following link https://www.peta.org.uk/blog/scottish-salmon-parasites/

Now many, even most, of you reading it will not be vegans, and no doubt most vegans will not be thrilled at being on the same side as those of us who spend our leisure time trying to stick a hook into wild salmon. Never mind, these pictures are horrific and no matter what other failings we might have, it beggars belief that it can be allowed to continue. It is just one more in a long line of hideous pictures and exposes of the salmon farming industry’s failings. Had these been pictures of cows, sheep, pigs or other farmed animals, the Government, HES and the RSPCA would have been hurling writs and prosecutions hither and yon.

As it is, barely a squeak. Why?

First, they are fish and not cuddly, the GBP (Great British Public) care nought for the welfare of fish, but for little lambykins, a baby seal or those cute beavers, now you are talking. The Press would have been all over it like a rash.

Secondly, money, of course. Trashing the seabed, tick; ruining wild salmon and sea trout rivers and lochs on Scotland’s west coast, tick; subjecting the farmed salmon themselves in their cages to every sort of disease and pollution, eaten alive by sea lice, tick; allowing both massive mortalities and escapes into the wild as routine, tick. All forgotten/ignored because salmon farming produces money and exports, and tax for the Government. As ever, commercialism wins over the environment and nature.

Yet little or nothing is done, and the industry itself argues black is white, that nothing is really wrong, they are getting on top of it. They must think we are stupid.

We were by way of stopping at that great watering hole on the A9, the House of Bruar, in PC (pre Covid) days. We were tucking into those Bruar scones and cream tea (jam on first, please), and a proper cup of coffee, when news came through that the road north was blocked. “Take your time” was the cry, for a lorry had shed its load of rotting and decaying farmed salmon, on its way to a dump somewhere south, all over both carriageways. When we eventually set off, we were allowed through, single file, with police and the fire brigade everywhere, the latter with power hoses to the fore, sluicing down the fetid tarmac, with rotting fish slithering all over the place. I can see the image now, and this was just one of hundreds of lorry loads of dead farmed fish, over the years, doing something similar, if not hopefully all over the road.

Can you imagine that happening with sheep, cattle or pigs, 1,000s upon 1,000s of dead bodies having to be disposed of in dumps, every year?

There appear to be more and more things this Scottish Government should be concerned about. Watching supinely over the extraordinary failings and malpractices of the fish farming industry, as it continues to expand, is one of the very worst.

Some of you may already follow “The Ferret”; here is a link to more about salmon farming https://theferret.scot/suffering-endemic-scottish-salmon-farms-video/ Try not to get too angry!

For those with Netflix, please watch “Seaspiracy” (also reported in today’s Sunday Times) to see more horrific and truly shocking footage and details of what we are doing to our oceans and their fish/mammals. Our own salmon farms are part of it (the bit about salmon farms in Scotland is about 1 hour in). Did you know the oh so nice, perfect, pinky red salmon you see in supermarkets is not that at all, it is a product of adding coloured dye to distinctly grey and unedifying flesh, to suit whatever colour you want the end product flesh to be? It is all so incredibly depressing and worrying, even if just half true, but do please watch it. How can we not despair at man’s unerring ability to trash the place. It might even make you question how we rod fishermen treat the fish we catch?

When you get to the end of Seaspiracy, you will be asked to stop eating fish, not just farmed fish, but all fish, as a protest. To save the planet. Even if Jeeves would not have approved, it may be the only way to change things for our oceans and their fish. Once and for all.