The Status of Salmon:Atlantic Wild Assessment River by A River The Status of Wild Atlantic Salmon: A River by River Assessment WWF-US Marine Conservation Program 1250 24th Street, N.W. Washington DC 20037 U.S.A. Tel.: ++1 202 778 9604 http://www.worldwildlife.org WWF-Norway WWF European Freshwater Programme Postboks 6784 Ryesgade 3F-DK-2200 St Olavs plass Copenhagen 0130 Oslo, Norway Denmark Tel.: ++ 47 22 03 65 00 Tel.: ++ 45 35 24 78 41 http://www.panda.org http://www.panda.org/europe/freshwater The Status of Wild Atlantic Salmon: A River by River Assessment Table of contents Foreword.......................................................................................................... ix 1. Introduction............................................................................................. 1 2. Summary of findings.............................................................................. 5 3. Scenarios for the future ......................................................................... 13 4. The biology of Atlantic salmon ............................................................ 21 5. Threats to salmon populations............................................................. 29 5.1 Pollution....................................................................................... 30 5.2 River infrastructure and engineering......................................... 37 5.3 The effect of fisheries on wild Atlantic salmon stocks.............. 42 5.4 Salmon aquaculture industry ..................................................... 45 5.5 Stocking and sea-ranching.......................................................... 59 5.6 Climate change ............................................................................ 62 6. The economic value of wild salmon stocks ......................................... 65 7. Status of salmon rivers by country or region ...................................... 71 7.1 The Baltic ..................................................................................... 71 7.2 Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia................................................ 81 7.3 North America............................................................................. 83 7.4 Denmark ...................................................................................... 93 7.5 England and Wales ...................................................................... 95 7.6 France......................................................................................... 104 7.7 Iceland ........................................................................................ 108 7.8 Ireland and Northern Ireland................................................... 111 7.9 Norway....................................................................................... 125 7.10 Portugal...................................................................................... 132 7.11 Russia.......................................................................................... 135 7.12 Scotland...................................................................................... 141 7.13 Spain........................................................................................... 153 Glossary ........................................................................................................ 157 Appendix 1: Methodology used for river categorization .......................... 161 Appendix 2: Data-sets.................................................................................. 165 vii STATE OF WILD ATLANTIC SALMON: A RIVER BY RIVER ASSESSMENT List of Figures and Tables Figure 1 Status of salmon populations in the rivers of 19 countries, in 2000........................................................................................... 6 Figure 2a Categorization of salmon-bearing rivers in 19 countries (classified by alphabetical order; the status is expressed as a percentage).............................................................................. 7 Figure 2b Categorization of salmon-bearing rivers in 19 countries (sorted using the extinct category; the status is expressed as a percentage).............................................................................. 8 Figure 3 Map of the wild Atlantic salmon’s range in 2000 and its known migration routes .......................................................... 9 Figure 4 Reported rod and net catches (numbers) and total catch 1952-1998........................................................................... 97 Figure 5 Annual Rod and Net Salmon Catch, 1974 – 1998 .................. 108 Figure 6 Nominal catch of salmon from Ireland 1974 – 1999.............. 112 Figure 7 Nominal catch of salmon from Northern Ireland 1974 – 1999................................................................................ 112 Figure 8 Atlantic salmon catch in Russia/Soviet Union 1900-1997 ..... 136 Table 1 Possible scenarios for the future of wild Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) ................................................................................ 15 Table 2 The composition of gravel at salmon spawning sites ............... 25 Table 3 Summary of requirements for spawning and incubation ........ 25 Table 4 Typical characteristics of juvenile salmon habitats................... 27 Table 5 Salmon fishing licenses issued by fishing method: 1937 and 1997.............................................................................. 97 Table 6 Status of salmon populations in French rivers........................ 105 Table 7 Magnitude of individual problems in 27 catchments............. 114 Table 8 List of rivers and tributaries designated under EC (Ireland and Northern Ireland)................................................ 119 Table 9 List of Irish catchments subjected to arterial drainage........... 123 Table 10 Scottish rivers containing or probably containing salmon by Statistical Region, length and tributary characteristics (Scotland).......................................................... 146 Table 11 Historic salmon rivers in Spain by region ............................... 153 viii Foreword WWF is committed to preserving the World’s biological diversity with a particular emphasis on the protection and restoration of vulnerable and endangered species. The following report represents the collective effort of many individuals within WWF and its partners in the conservation, scientific and angling communities and is an attempt to help bridge the gap in public knowledge of the status of Atlantic salmon across it’s range. Conducting our research we learned that, in many instances, not enough information was available to formulate an appropriate assessment of a particular river’s population of wild Atlantic salmon. Where sufficient infor- mation existed we were able to make the proper assessment and categoriza- tion based on readily available government data. In other circumstances, when information was more difficult to discern, every effort was made to apply precautionary standards and conservative analysis to our review and assessment. WWF submits this report to all those interested in helping to protect and restore this magnificent species and we sincerely hope that it better informs the international community of the salmon’s plight and begins a dynamic discussion of ways to restore populations of wild Atlantic salmon to health in all their native rivers. WWF, May 2001 ix Acknowledgements his Status of Wild Atlantic Salmon report started as an initiative of WWF’s T Norway office. It evolved into a collaboration among numerous WWF offices, in particular WWF-U.S.’s Marine Conservation Program and WWF’s European Freshwater Programme. WWF also collaborated with government agencies, academic institutions and other NGO’s. We are grateful to the Norwegian Ministry of Agriculture for intial funding and to WWF-U.S., WWF-Norway and WWF’s European Freshwater Programme for additional funding and support. Henning Røed, of WWF Norway, coordinated and analyzed the majority of the research and was the main editor during a four-year process. Gareth Porter, Jim Gourlay and Richard DeVitre edited and researched several sections of the report. The freshwater sections were the result of extensive research by Hanne Christiansen, Kjell Moe, Mark Vanderbeeken and Jane Madgwick. Our spe- cial thanks to Bill Taylor, president, and researchers Stephen Tinker and Fred Whoriskey as well as Sue Scott of the Atlantic Salmon Federation and Ed Baum, former Senior Scientist for the Atlantic Salmon Commission, Maine. In addition, we would like to thank our in-country contributors, who did excellent work. In Norway: Kjetil Hindar, Mai Britt Knoph, Øystein Aas, Arne Sivertsen, Steinar Sandøy, Stig Hvoslef, Erik Steineger, and Rasmus Hansson. In Sweden: Cathy Hill, Lennart Nyman, Niki Sporong, Lennart Henrikson (WWF), Christina Rappe (Swedish Environmental Protection Agency), Hans Ackerfors, and Lars Karlson (Swedish Salmon Research Institute). In Finland: Dr. Timo Makinen (Finnish Game and Fisheries Research Institute for Helsinki) and Anita Makinen (WWF). In Iceland: Thorolfur Antonsson (Institute of Freshwater Fisheries in Reykjavik), Arni Finnsson (INCA), Gorm Rasmussen (Danish Institute for Fisheries Research), and Michael Brinch Pedersen (WWF). In Scotland, we would like to thank the following for their research and support: R.I.G. Morgan (WWF) who prepared the report with the help of xi Andrew Wallace (Association of Salmon Fishery Boards), James