Salmon Stocks and Fisheries in England and Wales, 2001 SALMON STOCKS AND FISHERIES IN ENGLAND AND WALES, 2001 Preliminary assessment prepared for ICES, April 2002 1 Salmon Stocks and Fisheries in England and Wales, 2001 ISBN: 0 907545 15 7 Acknowledgement: This report has been compiled jointly by staff from the CEFAS Salmon and Freshwater Fisheries Team at Lowestoft and personnel from the Environment Agency’s National Salmon and Trout Fisheries Centre based at St. Mellons, Cardiff. The monitoring and assessment of salmon stocks conducted by CEFAS is funded by DEFRA and the National Assembly for Wales. Both CEFAS and the Environment Agency would like to extend their thanks to the various Agency regional fisheries staff who have collected and compiled the data for this report. Thanks are also due to the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology for providing river flow data, and counter data relating to the River Frome, to the General Secretary of ICES for permission to cite the reports of the ICES Working Group on North Atlantic Salmon and to the CEFAS Publications and Graphics Unit for laying out the report in camera ready form. 2 Salmon Stocks and Fisheries in England and Wales, 2001 CONTENTS Page FOREWORD ................................................................................................................................ 5 MAIN FEATURES OF REPORT FOR 2001 ..................................................................................... 6 SUMMARY ................................................................................................................................. 7 REPORT ON SALMON FISHERIES IN 2001 1. Gear and fishing effort ..................................................................................................... 11 1.1 Gear........................................................................................................................ 11 1.2 Effort ....................................................................................................................... 11 1.2.1 Allowable effort in net fisheries ......................................................................... 13 1.2.2 Allowable effort in rod fisheries ......................................................................... 16 1.2.3 Utilised effort in net fisheries ............................................................................ 16 1.2.4 Utilised effort in rod fisheries ............................................................................ 16 1.3 Catch limits .............................................................................................................. 18 2. Catches and CPUE ........................................................................................................... 19 2.1 Catches ................................................................................................................... 19 2.1.1 Catches in 2001 .............................................................................................. 19 2.1.2 Catches in coastal, estuarine and riverine fisheries ............................................ 24 2.1.3 Effects of significant management measures (and other events) on catches ........ 24 2.1.4 Long-term catch trends .................................................................................... 27 2.2 Catch per unit effort (CPUE)...................................................................................... 27 2.2.1 CPUE in net fisheries ...................................................................................... 27 2.2.2 CPUE in rod fisheries ...................................................................................... 29 2.3 Unreported and illegal catches .................................................................................. 30 2.3.1 Under-reporting by licence holders ................................................................... 30 2.3.2 Illegal catches by unlicensed fishermen ............................................................ 31 2.3.3 Under-reporting and illegal catch estimate for 2001 ............................................ 31 2.4 Other sources of non-catch fishing mortality ............................................................... 31 2.5 Composition of catches ............................................................................................. 31 2.5.1 Age composition of net catches ........................................................................ 31 2.5.2 Age composition of rod catches ....................................................................... 33 2.6 Origin of Catches ..................................................................................................... 36 2.6.1 Reared fish..................................................................................................... 36 2.6.2 Salmon from other countries ............................................................................ 37 2.7 Exploitation rates ...................................................................................................... 37 2.7.1 Homewater exploitation ................................................................................... 37 2.7.2 Exploitation in fisheries outside England and Wales ........................................... 39 REPORT ON STATUS OF STOCKS IN 2001 3. Status of stocks ............................................................................................................... 41 3.1 Conservation Limits and Management Targets ............................................................ 41 3.1.1 Progress with setting conservation limits ........................................................... 41 3.1.2 Spawning escapement in 2001 ......................................................................... 45 3.2 Measures of abundance/escapement ......................................................................... 46 3.3 Survival indices ........................................................................................................ 49 4. Microtag, fin clip and external tag releases...................................................................... 49 5. References....................................................................................................................... 50 ANNEX 1. Additional information ............................................................................................ 51 ANNEX 2. NASCO’s request for scientific advice from ICES (CNL (01)66) .............................. 53 ANNEX 3. Status of Salmon Action Plans (SAPs) .................................................................... 55 ANNEX 4. Description of fishing methods .............................................................................. 57 ANNEX 5. ICES compilation of microtag, fin clip and external tag releases ............................ 59 3 Salmon Stocks and Fisheries in England and Wales, 2001 4 Salmon Stocks and Fisheries in England and Wales, 2001 FOREWORD This is the fifth annual report on the state of salmon stocks in England and Wales prepared by the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (CEFAS) and the National Salmon and Trout Fisheries Centre (NSTFC) of the Environment Agency. Each annual report is designed to stand alone so that the reader does not need to refer back to previous reports for background information. This means that much of the descriptive information in this report is similar to that in reports for previous years. The main purpose of the report is to provide early feedback to managers and fishermen on the status of stocks and fisheries in England and Wales and to supply this information to the International Council for the Exploration of the Seas (ICES). The information submitted to ICES is used, in turn, to provide advice to the North Atlantic Salmon Conservation Organisation (NASCO). The objectives of NASCO are to contribute to ‘the conservation, restoration, enhancement and rational management of salmon stocks’. In particular, NASCO is responsible for negotiating the quotas for the salmon fisheries at West Greenland and Faroes (Annex 1 gives further information on NASCO and ICES). The full list of information requested by NASCO from ICES for its annual meeting in 2002 is given at Annex 2. However, for this report, the pertinent requests relating to events in 2001 are to: provide an overview of salmon catches and landings, including unreported catches by country and catch and release, and production of farmed and ranched salmon; describe the key events of the 2001 fisheries and the status of the stocks; evaluate the effects of management measures introduced since 1991; provide age-specific stock conservation limits for all stocks; and provide a compilation of tag releases. NASCO has previously indicated that it would like the information on the fisheries to relate to catches, gear, effort, composition and origin of the catch (including escapees and sea ranched fish), and rates of exploitation. These headings have therefore been used in the appropriate sections of the report. It must be noted that most of the data relating to 2001 are provisional and will not be finalised until complete catch data are obtained and records can be fully validated. Final data will be presented in the Environment Agency’s annual publication of the Salmonid and Freshwater Fisheries Statistics and their annual Salmon Action Plan progress reports (see Annex 3), which will be published later in the year. 5 Salmon Stocks and Fisheries in England and Wales, 2001