Source: NASF
The wild salmon of the many countries that travel from their home rivers to the rich waters of the Faroe Islands to feed and grow are safe again from commercial exploitation. The North Atlantic Salmon Fund (NASF) and Laksaskip (the organisation of the Faroese Long Liners) have signed a new moratorium agreement that gives full protection to the salmon’s main feeding ground in the North East Atlantic.
NASF’s chairman Orri Vigfusson said:
“I am delighted. In the year in which we celebrate the silver anniversary of our work to stem the decline in wild salmon numbers this extended agreement is a splendid advance. It will be an enormous help to our campaign to restore salmon numbers to their historic abundance. It will also kick-start our efforts for the next quarter century.”
Mr Vigfusson, pictured (above centre) with Faroes representatives Poul Martin Rasmussen and Niels Jacob Th. Nielson, added:
“Now we need everyone who has an interest in the restoration of the wild Atlantic salmon resource to realise that they must also make a meaningful contribution. Like all our other agreements financing the Faroes moratorium and ensuring its continuation takes money. I would ask all our supporters to try to find some cash to help our fund-raising efforts.
In addition I would especially appeal to the authorities and organisations in Scotland and Norway to rethink their support for commercial salmon fishing. Both countries are currently set to allow nets to destroy almost all the extra spawners that could run their rivers as a result of the Faroes agreement. They are ignoring their opportunity to rebuild their salmon stocks. It is high time these nations were prepared to make an international contribution to salmon conservation.”
NASF always works on the basis that any commercial fisherman that suspends or gives up his right to catch salmon must be fully compensated.
Mr Vigfusson added:
“We believe that this is the way we can stop the huge and senseless decline that netting has caused to the salmon stocks of Scotland and Norway. See footnote on reported salmon catches.
To bring this about, of course, all their netsmen would need to be generously compensated. Unfortunately, ever since 1994, these two countries have preferred to waste money on looking for more and more data, meanwhile their stocks are disappearing. The number of their salmon that survive to spawn is down by 80% to 90%.
I would ask everyone who wishes to contribute to NASF’s efforts to contact me at nasf@vortex.is or orri@icy.is. Please let us know what kind of support you can offer.”
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The data is … pretty indisputable
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Total reported nominal catch of salmon (in tonnes round fresh weight), 1960 – 2013 (2014 estimated) Published data by the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES):
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Scotland´s annual salmon catches |
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1960 – 1969 |
1.185 – 2.117 tons |
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1970 – 1979 |
1.050 – 1.831 “ |
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1980 – 1989 |
905 – 1.623 “ |
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1990 – 1999 |
740 – 930 “ |
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2000 – 2009 |
121 – 275 “ |
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2010 – 2013 |
123 – 180 “ |
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2014 |
100 estimated (netting activities |
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Norway´s annual salmon catches |
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1960 – 1969 |
1.383 – 2.147 tons |
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1970 – 1979 |
1.076 – 2.006 “ |
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1980 – 1989 |
882 – 1.261 “ |
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1990 – 1999 |
630 – 930 “ |
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2000 – 2009 |
595 – 1.267 “ |
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2010 – 2014 |
475 – 696 “ |