Wild Norwegian salmon

- angling and status

The sunny side of the story..

…..but sometimes other facts have a tendency to mess up the sunny

stories…..

Catches in the North-Atlantic is at a Historic low

• Total catches

reduced by 75 %

• Norwegian catches reduced

by 50 %

• 45 salmon-stocks

in Norway is extinct

• Approx. 150 of 401 of the remaining stocks is threatened, vulnerable or weak

Pre-fishery abundance 1983 - 2007

The challenges of the Norwegian wild salmon

Acid rain

OverfishingChanges at sea

?Hydropower

Etc.

Escapees

Salmon liceGyrodactylus

salaris

The complex world of the salmon in the sea

Department and Directorate of Fisheries and their regional offices- Responsible to deal with escaped farmed salmon/salmon-lice/diseases

Department and Directorate of Fisheries and their regional offices- Responsible to deal with escaped farmed salmon/salmon-lice/diseases

Department and Directorate of nature management and their county-offices- Responsible for the A-Salmon as a species

Department and Directorate of nature management and their county-offices- Responsible for the A-Salmon as a species

Scientific research institutions- NINA/HI/Niva/Rådgivende Biologer/VI m.fl.

Scientific research institutions- NINA/HI/Niva/Rådgivende Biologer/VI m.fl.

Norwegian Food Safety Authority - Responsible to ensure that the rules within their fields of responsibility are upheld – salmon-lice and deceases

Norwegian Food Safety Authority - Responsible to ensure that the rules within their fields of responsibility are upheld – salmon-lice and deceases

NASCO/ICES- Recommendations on salmon-management

NASCO/ICES- Recommendations on salmon-management

Ulike ”løse” interessegrupper - NASF, SOS, NMF, Pure Salmon Campaign, ERT, ”Villaksalliansen”, The Greens ++

Ulike ”løse” interessegrupper - NASF, SOS, NMF, Pure Salmon Campaign, ERT, ”Villaksalliansen”, The Greens ++

Organisations-NJFF, NL, Greenpeace, WWF, NGSL, NNV, Bellona, NB, NSF, Frifo

Organisations-NJFF, NL, Greenpeace, WWF, NGSL, NNV, Bellona, NB, NSF, Frifo

Salmon farmers- FHL, NSL m.fl.

Salmon farmers- FHL, NSL m.fl.

The ParliamentSets the frame that we work

within

NJFFs wiew on salmon management

• Stronger and more firm actions against escapes from salmon-farms

• Active measures to reduce salmon-lice from farms to a sustainable level

• Habitat enhancement in rivers and a general focus on salmon when old hydropower regulations are renewed – as most of them will be towards 2022

• Increased actions to combat Gyrodactylus salaris

• Continue to lime acidified salmon rivers at today's level

• Increase and strengthen the research on salmon – general biology/ecology, environmental factors and interactions with farmed salmon

• Regulate the catches in both the sea and in the rivers depending on the stock-status

Which brings me to the most important river in Norway, and

Finland• The river Tana/Teno

– 1.200km river and tributaries with salmon reduced to 1.000km• Almost extinct, or extinct in some “tributaries”

– PFA up to 600-tons • Approx. 1.5 mill smolts to reach this PFA

– River-catch 70-250-tons (1972-2008). Average: 135-tons• Angling (60%) and drift-nets, gill-nets etc (40%)

– Every scientific research done during the last ten years points towards a heavy over-exploitation in the sea outside and in the river combined

What must be done?

• Reduce sea-fishing with bag-nets and bend-nets in the Tana fjord (Norway)

• Bag-limits for anglers

• Reduction in the allowed period to fish with other fishing-gear in the river - both on the Norwegian and Finish side of the border

• Preferably this must be done simultaneously in both countries, but if necessary one of the countries must lead the way towards a better controlled catch-regime!