River Carron in Wester Ross downgraded to “poor” conservation status

Every year in late summer the Scottish Government launches a consultation exercise on its proposed salmon conservation grades for rivers in the following year. The proposals are based on an annual assessment of the probability of a river meeting its “conservation limit”. 

Grading the conservation status of rivers

Rivers are graded against three levels of conservation status: 

• Good (Grade 1: “exploitation is sustainable”).
• Moderate (Grade 2:  “management action is necessary to reduce exploitation”).
• Poor (Grade 3: “exploitation is unsustainable, therefore management action, including mandatory catch and release, is required to reduce exploitation”).

It is very rare for the final gradings (which are confirmed into law before the start of the new season) to differ from those proposed in the consultation. Gradings are based on catch returns (which are used as the basis for calculating the probability of a river’s stock meeting its conservation limit) from the previous five-year period – so 2025 gradings reflect catch returns from 2019 to 2023.

Grading proposals for the 2025 season

The consultation for the 2025 season gradings proposes that four rivers (including the Clyde) will no longer require mandatory catch and release, whilst nine rivers will become mandatory catch and release fisheries. There are two standouts in the latter. The inclusion of Endrick Water, that flows into Loch Lomond, is significant because its Special Area of Conservation (SAC) status means that NatureScot will have to tread very carefully, under the terms of the Habitats Directive, in responding to salmon farming planning applications in the Firth of Clyde, to ensure that the river’s stocks are not jeopardised any further.

The other notable inclusion in the list of rivers being downgraded from Grade 2 to Grade 3 is the River Carron at the southern end of Wester Ross, an area that is a salmon farming hub including a 2,000 tonnes maximum biomass farm in the adjacent sea loch (Loch Carron).

Some background to the Carron’s downgrading

In response to very low rod catches in the 1990s, a massive and very expensive stocking programme (some 150,000 fed-fry annually), funded by proprietors and critically local salmon farming interests, was established and still continues today. 

Catches increased markedly from 2004. The annual average declared catch from 2004 to 2009 was 200 salmon and grilse, rising to an annual average of 272 during the ten years from 2010 to 2019. However, the sequence of catches from 2020 to 2023 (85, 74, 61, 57 – an annual average of 69) indicates a major downturn, prompting the Carron’s downgrading. 

It is now apparent that, while the intensive stocking and “ranching” exercise may have boosted numbers in the short-term, it is not a long-term solution. 

The long-term sustainability of wild salmon in Scotland

Partly fuelled by a relentless publicity campaign (driven by those behind the stocking), the Carron’s short-lived ‘recovery’ has been hailed by salmon stocking advocates and some salmon fishing influencers as a universal example of how to counteract declining numbers. It has been trumpeted as a blueprint for restoring wild stocks by the salmon farming industry and its propagandists; bizarrely, it was even given a “conservation award” just days before the new proposed gradings were announced.

It is surely time for a reality check and for these salmon stocking proponents to recognise that the real priority, with the aim of achieving long-term sustainability, should be to address, as far as is feasible, the underlying problems that negatively influence salmon abundance. Including, in the west Highlands and Islands, the insidious but deadly impacts of salmon farming. 

Follow the link below to find out more about our campaign to end open-net salmon farming in Scotland.

By: Andrew Graham-Stewart

WildFish Consultant