Wild Norwegian salmon angling and status The sunny

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 Gyrodactylus salaris Salmon lice Acid rain Escapees Changes at sea ? Overfishing Hydropower Etc.

The complex world of the salmon in the sea The Parliament Sets the frame that we work within Department and Directorate of Fisheries and their regional offices - Responsible to deal with escaped farmed salmon/salmon-lice/diseases Salmon farmers - FHL, NSL m. fl. Department and Directorate of nature management and their county-offices - Responsible for the A-Salmon as a species Organisations -NJFF, NL, Greenpeace, WWF, NGSL, NNV, Bellona, NB, NSF, Frifo Norwegian Food Safety Authority - Responsible to ensure that the rules within their fields of responsibility are upheld – salmonlice and deceases NASCO/ICES - Recommendations on salmonmanagement Scientific research institutions - NINA/HI/Niva/Rådgivende Biologer/VI m. fl. Ulike ”løse” interessegrupper - NASF, SOS, NMF, Pure Salmon Campaign, ERT, ”Villaksalliansen”, The Greens ++

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. 200 km river and tributaries with salmon reduced to 1. 000 km • 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 fishinggear 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!