Salmon Face Myriad Threats

Conservation agencies have highlighted a number of threats to the UK’s wild salmon population, from increasing water temperatures to river pollution

A huge decline in the number of young wild salmon returning to British rivers could lead to a national shortage, according to the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT).

For 16 years, the GWCT, along with the Government’s Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science, has monitored the number of juvenile Atlantic salmon leaving the river Frome in Dorset for their feeding grounds in the North Atlantic. This is known as a smolt run, smolt being another name for a juvenile fish.

The work is part of a project called SAMARCH, which aims to improve knowledge and understanding of salmon and sea trout populations to improve the way they are managed and increase stocks. Project partners include the GWCT, the Environment Agency and Salmon & Trout Conservation UK (S&TC UK).