[Rob Brownfield]

So, we hear that Salmon are in decline due to, over fishing, weather systems are changing, sea currents are getting warmer/cooler depending on who you believe, global warming is affecting everything, water extraction is reducing water flow, silt is building up on spawning beds, farming is causing fish deaths, food at sea is non existent and so on and so on.

Will there be a time when Salmon are in a situation where due to all of the above, they either disappear from our rivers  or reach levels where they cannot be fished for?

If so, what do we do then? Leave the rivers empty or do we stock with species that are more capable of surviving the conditions and thus providing some form of fishing/tourism?

[Mark Zhang]

I don't believe it will be happened in UK. In china, it happened. Goverment build a dam in the middle of the rive or a few, and some of the fish can go back to the breed area. After a few years, they disppeared. Don't know where they are now, dead or migrated to somewhere. But some of them survived, such as they can bread anywhere (like human)

Mark

[Rob Brownfield]

I don't believe it will be happened in UK.

If we believe the scientists, we are already well on the way to it happening

[Euan Innes]

Rob,
If you believe every scientist red wine is good / bad for you and the arctic should have disappeared ten years ago.
If salmon are that endangered then we have three options -
1. Stop fishing and killing (nets, rods etc)
2. F##k it and let the Brown trout take over and have a good time.
3. (best plan) Let Ewan McGregor re-stock the river and don't build dams.
 
When I worked I the tackle shop in Banchory in the nineties the salmon were DOOMED and would not see the millenium, but yet here we are 15 years on and still there are fish. Harder to catch and further up the river due to high water, but fish are there.
It is indicative of our society now that we want instant gratification and if it doesn't suit us we should change it. For all the years the lower river has benefited from large catches and the upper river has been barren, once the tables have turned then the voices get louder and wallet strain becomes more focused.
Blame has been put on farming, deforestation, grouse moors, abstraction and climate change (the last one is as big a joke as Ewan McGregor restocking) but what we actually see is a stabilisation of the fish running. Not as many as the 60s / 70s but enough for the river in its current state that we provide for them and the current amount of water that lets them reach spawning.
Wolves will only breed as many pups as the pack / feeding can withstand and so it seems with salmon. So the fishing is not what it used to be. Well, if we hadn't slaughtered them whole sale in the 60s and 70s, hadn't sucked the water out of the river and hadn't sh#t in it, it might be a bit different. The lack of fish, it seems to me, is not the fault of the fishermen but of everyone else that uses the river.
So what happens if the salmon go away?
Who knows, but I'm in for a bit of trout fishing for much cheapness. Anyone else?

 
(just my opinion and not necessarily that of the forum)

[Rob Brownfield]

Soundmixer,
We have been doomed the moment Eve ate the apple

I moved to Scotland in the mid 80's and I remember being told that I had better get my skates on if I wanted to catch a salmon as they would not be about in a few years 

Although the original post was to provoke a discussion more than anything, I think it is fair to say that Salmon are in the balance just now.

As for Global Warming..I am a bit skeptical as well 

[Euan Innes]

Rob,
I still like the Ewan MacGregor idea....... 

 

[Iain Cameron]

I moved to Scotland in the mid 80's and I remember being told that I had better get my skates on if I wanted to catch a salmon...

and have you caught one yet?!

[Graeme Inglis]

To me the biggest problem is what is happening before the fish get into the river, those who think they know better decided that we must protect seals, their numbers now are exploding exponentially  and you see them in estuary's in ever increasing numbers.  We also thanks to global warming have huge schools of dolphins who have very quickly learned that food is plentiful on salon river estuary's.

I don't know the official number of North Sea seals but given the recent nature progs on TV it seems that their increase is huge, that being the case given the perceived problems of sustainable fishing in the North Sea, it doesn't take a mastermind to think of a solution.

G

[Rob Brownfield]

We also thanks to global warming have huge schools of dolphins who have very quickly learned that food is plentiful on salon river estuary's.

You certainly see Dolphins/Porpoises at the mouth of the Dee throwing salmon around as if playing with them. Some of the fish are well over 20 pounds in weight, being thrown from one dolphin to the next.