Salmon fishing: proposed river gradings for 2024 season

The River Dee rod catch has collapsed dramatically over the last ten years from a high of 9,000 in 2010 to currently 1,000.
How on earth can that still be classified as a category one river , where exploitation is permissible by law ? Whilst anglers have adhered to voluntary conservation code for twenty years, the collapse is catastrophic for the local economy.

I’m a resident of Deeside and the River Dee flows 100 yards from my home.

I also am administrator of Salmon Fishing Club on Facebook with 25,000 members.
I used to be development officer for the Dee board from 2008 to 2014.

Established convention from Scottish River Boards is that approx 10 % of the years salmon run is caught by anglers annually. In Iceland it’s said that over 50% of the run is caught by anglers. Huge differential in these numbers and I’m more inclined to believe Icelandic catch/run data is more accurate than Scotlands ten percent.
Having real concerns about the lack of accurate salmon run data, which ultimately informs conservation policy, and the need for stocking/gene banks, if the guesstimate is far short of reality, then this is a huge problem.
Efforts to persuade government NGO’s to lobby for predator control are stymied by rivers being given a “category one” rating.
Gov NGO’s are “against” predator control and allow “legally” the taking of salmon on category one rivers. You might not get an invite back for taking a fish but no law is broken.
For example how can, say the Aberdeenshire Dee be category one when just over ten years ago it was category one ? It’s rod catch has fallen from approx 7-9,000 a season and is currently sitting at around one thousand. I’m sure the same decline rates can be said about the Spey, Tay and Tweed.
To summarise, if the guesstimates are wrong on run size, everything relating to their protection is wrong and our salmon are in far greater peril. This is a political football and if anglers can’t force needed change on accurate counting of fish runs, the future of wild salmon is very bleak. Other countries count their runs, whether sampling in fjords in Norway, nets and counters in North America /Canada, and from that consider whether rivers open for fishing, catch limits and other conservation measures based on facts. In Scotland currently it seems no one can see the fish for the trees !

The collapse of salmon runs harms fragile rural economies that rely on angling tourism during the shoulder periods of spring and autumn. I do not believe the category one status matters to anglers who return most of the salmon that are caught. The lack of salmon is a far greater concern. Anglers have given up their right to take salmon to preserve the species.

See answer to question 5

The category one status should be abolished until salmon stocks recover. There must be help to boards to establish gene banks to preserve genetic sub species which are extinction levels. See Girnock and Braddock, monitored by marine Scotland.

The salmon are critically endangered and much greater protection in river must be provided, predator control, seal relocation and fining polluters heavily. Aquaculture incentives need to be offered to transition to closed containment on land. All are important components to the recovery process for Atlantic salmon and sea trout.