The Atlantic Salmon Trust

A genetic study has shown that the nets are killing a large number of Scottish salmon.

The AST and the S&TA have submitted a joint response to the EA/Defra consultation on a Net Limitation Order (NLO) for the North-East Coast net fisheries. The existing NLO expires in December 2012

These fisheries employ drift nets and T and J beach nets. It has been Government policy since 1991 to phase out the use of drift nets, and over the past 20 years, and with the assistance of a buy-out scheme in 2003, the number of drift net licences has fallen from 142 to 14. However, in the  ten years since the buy-out of the majority of drift nets, the number of T and J nets has doubled, from 30  to  61, and their share of the overall catch has risen substantially.

Scottish fish being caught

The proposed new NLO would retain the phase out of drift nets and for the first time introduce a similar policy for T and J nets.  As existing licencees give up their licences, these will not be reallocated, and in time theses fisheries will close. A genetic study of fish caught in T and J nets has shown that these are mixed stock fisheries, with a high proportion of fish caught originating in Scottish rivers.

The AST and  the S&TA believe that governments throughout the UK should take action now to close mixed stock fisheries, with appropriate compensation paid to netsmen.  Failing this, we would like the UK Government to do more to reduce exploitation of salmon and sea trout in the North-East coast net fisheries. While we welcome the proposed renewal of the phase  out for drift nets and tits  extension  to cover T and J  nets, we want the Government  to set a timetable, with a firm date for final closure, for the phase  out fisheries and to take other measures  to reduce their impact on the salmon and sea trout stocks originating in rivers in North-East England and in Scotland. 

Basis of AST's concern

A number of factors underlie our concern about the impact of these fisheries:

• Catches of salmon  over the past two years have been more than double the average for the seven years after the buy out, with catches in 2011of 25,000 fish, 25% higher than in 2010;
• The phase out of drift net licences in the years since the 2002 buy-out is proceeding very slowly; over the past 9 years the number of licences has fallen by 3, from 17 to 14 and the full phase out is predicted to take 25 years. We can expect numbers of T and J net licences to fall equally, if not more, slowly,
• There is potential for considerably increased effort in the T and J net fisheries, and, with wild salmon and sea trout fetching high prices, every incentive for netsmen to catch more fish.

In these circumstances, we have also proposed that a limit, or quota, be introduced on the total.numbers of salmon and sea trout that can be taken in these fisheries in any year; we would like to set this set at a level closer to the average catch over the last five years than to last year’s high level.  An overall catch limit would also  help reduce the risk that increasing catches in the North-East coast net fisheries will encourage Greenland and the Faroe Islands to authorise the resumption of high seas mixed stock fisheries.

You can read the full text of our response here, and the Environment  Agency’s review of these fisheries and proposal for a new NLO can be found at http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/research/library/consultations/139400.aspx 

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