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Wild salmon. (Photo: atlanticsalmontrust.org)
Scotland accused of not complying with EU laws to protect salmon
(EUROPEAN UNION, 6/17/2014)
Salmon & Trout Association (S&TA) presented a formal complaint against the Scottish Government to the EU, accusing it of failure to comply with European law aiming to protect Atlantic salmon populations in Scottish rivers designated as Special Areas of Conservation under the Habitats Directive.
According to the conservation organisation, during the Thirty-First Annual Meeting of the North Atlantic Salmon Conservation Organisation (NASCO) held in Saint-Malo, France, it was revealed that coastal salmon netting is actually increasing in Scotland and that, in contrast to almost all other Atlantic salmon producing nations, it has almost no management regime in place to prevent this, nor is there any adequate mechanism to limit catches.
In the framework of NASCO Salmon Special Session, Scotland’s stand-in representative conceded that there had been a quantum leap in the coastal salmon netting catch in 2013, that in the last three years Scotland’s largest netting company had acquired the fishing rights to an additional 12 miles of coastline and that dormant netting stations had been allowed to re-open without the Scottish Government carrying out an appropriate assessment on the likely impact on salmon rivers with Special Area of Conservation status.
“It is disappointing that Marine Scotland’s senior civil servant with responsibility for coastal salmon netting was unable to attend the NASCO meeting. Had he been there, he would then have appreciated that Scotland is now widely recognised as a pariah because of its lamentable record on salmon protection and that it is widely perceived as not taking its international obligations seriously,” claimed Scottish S&TA Chairman Hugh Campbell Adamson.
And he added: “It is the only major producer of wild salmon in the North Atlantic that is actually presiding over an increase in coastal salmon netting.”
Adamson pointed out that given Scottish Government’s intransigence on dealing with coastal netting, the only viable option is to take the matter to a higher authority and submit a complaint to Europe.
Meanwhile, NASCO is adamant that, on the basis of the advice it receives from the International Council for the Exploration of the Seas (ICES), management actions with regard to net fisheries, “should aim to protect the weakest of the contributing stocks”.
For her part, NASCO President Mary Colligan stressed: “Mixed-stock fisheries pose particular management challenges, especially in ensuring that the weakest of the contributing stocks is protected. Newly available genetic methods should support rational management of these fisheries in the future and our goal must be to ensure that harvesting activities do not exacerbate the serious conservation situation already facing the wild salmon at sea.”
On the other hand, a Scottish Government spokesperson highlighted that the Scottish Government is committed to meeting their international obligations on salmon management, claiming that "Nasco does not prescribe the approaches to management of home water fisheries nor does it require that netting for salmon is stopped," The Scotsman reported.
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