Calls for quota system to conserve wild salmon stocks
A NEW fishing campaign arm of the Scottish Gamekeepers’ Association (SGA) is calling for a quota system to conserve plummeting stocks of wild salmon and sea trout.
The group is worried about the fall over the past two years in catches of the fish and it is calling on the Scottish Government to act to save the industry which is worth £113 million.
Analysts expect catch records for 2014 to highlight significant problems in Scotland’s coastal waters and rivers.
The Marine Conservation Society has only recently advised that wild Scottish salmon should no longer be eaten because of their conservation status, claiming Scotland has “no management regime in place to prevent an increase in coastal netting”.
The new SGA fishing group has been established to make the voices of concerned river workers and anglers heard and it hopes the Government can help the industry ease tension between anglers and netsmen by applying quotas through a tagging system.
Under that system, anglers and netsmen wishing to kill fish would have to apply for a tag, and quotas for how many fish could be taken would be based on available science.
“Anglers, river workers and netsmen at the end of the day all want the same thing which is more fish in our rivers,” said Spey ghillie Ian Gordon, part of the new body.