The Great Salmon Escape: Storm Amy's Unwanted Gift to Scottish Waters
Early October witnessed Storm Amy unleash its fury upon Scotland, roaring into the Highlands with destructive force. The tempest toppled ancient trees, tore slates from rooftops, brought down power lines, confined ferries to port and even forced temporary closures of major bridges.
At Mowi Scotland's Gorsten fish farm in Loch Linnhe, near Fort William, the storm's impact proved particularly devastating. Anchor systems dragged under battering waves and protective netting ripped apart, allowing approximately 75,000 farmed salmon to escape into the West Highland sea.
The Endangered King of Fish
This mass escape raises significant concerns about what might happen if enough of these fugitive salmon survive to maturity, ascend rivers like the Lochy, Nevis or Coe, and breed with their wild counterparts. The potential consequences for the health of wild salmon populations and their legendary homing abilities remain uncertain.
The Atlantic salmon, traditionally known as the King of Fish, represents a species of remarkable strength and tenacity. These powerful swimmers can leap formidable obstacles while ascending rivers to reach spawning grounds in burns and tributaries. In Gaelic tradition, they've long been associated with wisdom.
Before industrialisation brought widespread damming and pollution, salmon were extraordinarily abundant throughout Scotland. They provided such a ready source of delicious protein that historical records indicate Govan apprentices had contracts specifying they could only be fed salmon twice weekly.
Despite conservation successes - including salmon returning to the Clyde by 1977 and breeding in the Kelvin by 1999 after a 130-year absence - the broader picture since the early 1990s shows an ominous decline. In 2023, only 33,023 wild salmon were caught in Scotland, representing a 25% decrease from 2022 and the lowest recorded numbers since records began in 1952.
Economic Impacts and Conservation Measures
The situation has become so dire that in December 2023, the International Union for Conservation of Nature added Scotland's Atlantic salmon to its red list. The King of Fish now shares endangered status with mountain gorillas, blue whales and Komodo dragons, facing potential extinction within two decades.
The economic repercussions extend throughout Scotland's angling industry. Kevin Patterson, a Tweed ghillie on the Tweedswood beat near Melrose, recalls about 40 fish being caught on his stretch alone during spring season when he began his trade. In 1995, three anglers landed 19 salmon in a single outing. By April 22, 2019, his guests had caught just two fish all season.
This dramatic decline has forced fishing beats to slash prices throughout the Tweed region. Mr Patterson now charges as little as £40 for a day's fishing, compared to £140 previously. This represents significant economic impact on a river where a 2015 study estimated angling brought £24 million into the local economy and supported the equivalent of 520 jobs.
The angling lobby's response since approximately 1994 has focused on promoting catch-and-release practices, with fewer beats permitting anglers to keep salmon. This year, for the first time, even famous systems like the Creed, Grimersta and Garynahine on Lewis and Harris completely banned keeping caught salmon.
However, critics argue that catch-and-release treats living creatures as playthings and reinforces the mistaken prejudice that anglers represent the primary threat to salmon survival.
Broader Threats and the Fish Farming Dilemma
In reality, salmon face multiple greater threats. Until long-overdue legal changes in 2002 destroyed their business model, commercial poachers caused incalculable harm. The plunder of wild stocks at sea by Faroese and Irish fisheries has fortunately ceased, and most coastal netting fisheries have been bought out and closed.
Coastal predation presents another challenge, with salmon particularly vulnerable in narrow estuarial waters. However, Scottish ministers haven't sanctioned a seal cull since 1978.
Many landowners and estates naturally view salmon cages in adjacent waters with suspicion when examining their dwindling catch records. While their concerns may be valid, the reasons might differ from common assumptions.
Reaction to the Loch Linnhe escape may prove overwrought because salmon bred for cage raising are specifically developed for captive conditions. Jon Gibb of the Lochaber Salmon Fishery Board notes that of 144 escapees caught in the Lochy, none were sexually mature.
Ben Hadfield, chief operating officer of Mowi Scotland, believes the impact will be negligible, citing similar research after a 2020 Carradale escape where 48,000 fish fled. Of 5,300 salmon assessed in local rivers following that incident, only one showed any trace of aquacultural ancestry.
The caged-salmon hypothesis faces another complication: salmon numbers have crashed equally severely on east coast rivers where fish farming is virtually nonexistent.
Nevertheless, concerns remain about wild salmon and sea trout navigating past packed, polluting cages that arguably shouldn't be located in sea environments at all. Alternative approaches, like Alastair Barge's successful halibut farming in great tubs ashore on the Isle of Gigha, demonstrate possibilities for operations requiring no medication, causing no pollution, and eliminating the need to shoot marauding seals.
The salmon farming lobby represents a formidable force in Scotland, with the industry now constituting Scotland's biggest food export and worth £1 billion to the Scottish economy. However, very little remains in Scottish ownership, with Norwegian and Faroese interests dominating the sector. Modern automation means the industry directly employs only about 2,500 people.
The Oceanic Mystery
The fundamental question remains: what's causing the salmon collapse? Electronic fish detectors on the Tweed indicate that as many smolts (juvenile salmon) are heading out to sea as ever recorded, suggesting no problems in the river itself.
The alarming statistic reveals that only 1% of these salmon return, indicating something has gone terribly wrong in the ocean environment. One potential culprit emerges: the prodigious volume of fish harvested to produce feed for caged salmon.
Incredibly, the amount of fish annually fed to caged salmon roughly equals the total amount of wild fish purchased directly by the British public each year. The industry requires approximately 200 wild fish to raise just one farmed salmon, representing depredation on a scale that must inevitably have profound ecological consequences for marine ecosystems and the survival of wild salmon populations.
