Scottish salmon extinct in 20 years

Pop legend campaigner warns of consequences if we do not tackle river pollution now

-  DAN VEVERS

POP star Feargal Sharkey has warned wild Scottish salmon will be extinct in 20 years without urgent action to save our rivers.

The Teenage Kicks singer took his fight for healthier waterways to the heart of whisky country yesterday on a visit to the River Spey.

Keen angler Sharkey, 64, said authorities needed to take "big and radical" measures to save our wild Atlantic salmon - or risk losing them forever.

The ex-Undertones frontman also insisted the public had to "wake up" to a sewage-dumping epidemic polluting watercourses across the country.

The warning came amid the launch of a new charity aimed at conserving and restoring the Spey - one of the world's most famous salmon rivers.

The Spey Catchment Initiative which existed for more than a decade as a public-private partnership - has been relaunched as a full charitable organisation, and it is hoped it will help ramp up nature restoration efforts on the river and its banks.

Speaking to the Record on the riverbank, Sharkey revealed how his "childhood passion" for angling and fly fishing sparked his transformation from punk rocker to eco-warrior.

He said: "Rivers like the Spey have given me an enormous amount of pleasure. They have been a huge focal point of my life for decades, probably the better part of 50 years.

"It should be one of the most pristine environments on the planet, celebrating the remarkable thing that is a Scottish salmon. Yet, according to no greater authority than Sir David Attenborough, the Atlantic salmon has got 20 years. And if we don't do something really big and radical, we are going to lose this remarkable fish.