Ireland needs a radical change of strategy so Atlantic salmon survive and thrive - Hermann Kelly

An ecological rather than political discussion of problems causing the decline in salmon runs and proffered solutions to ensure that salmon stocks recover. The presenter is a keen fisherman and former marine biology student Hermann Kelly, president of the Irish Freedom Party.

Some useful references below in matters touched on in video.

Jens Christian Holt - feeding  grounds
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/fme.12405

Abstract

The River Bush (Northern Ireland) is an index river for the estimation of Atlantic salmon, Salmo salar L., stock size, population dynamics and marine survival rates. Marine survival estimates are based on the number of smolts counted at a trap 3.5 km upstream of the river outlet. The survival from release to coastal inshore waters for acoustic-tagged smolts released at the Bushmills trap varied between 32% and 68%, with both year and brightness during river exit playing a significant role in explaining the variations in survival. This constitutes an important survival bottleneck. 

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/
Fisheries Management and Ecology
Volume 27, Issue 1 p. 92-101
Marine mortality in the river? Atlantic salmon smolts under high predation pressure in the last kilometres of a river monitored for stock assessment

Hugo Flávio, Richard Kennedy, Dennis Ensing, Niels Jepsen, Kim Aarestrup

First published: 23 November 2019

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/fme.12405

‘Toxic: The Rotting Underbelly of the Tasmanian Salmon Industry’ by Richard Flanagan

Written by Booker prize-winner Richard Flanagan, Toxic is a no holds barred investigation into the dubious practices of farming Atlantic salmon in Tasmania, specifically the D’Entrecasteaux Channel, a body of water that separates Bruny Island from the Tasmanian mainland and which acts as the mouth of the estuaries of the Derwent and Huon Rivers and empties into the Tasman Sea.

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Dr Jens Christian Holt challenges reasons cited, in recent years, for the decline, which include climate change, sea lice from salmon farms, crossbreeding with farmed salmon, and the unintended catching of salmon by trawlers. But, from his research over three decades, he believes overfeeding and predation are major factors behind diminishing salmon and sea-bird stocks in Western Europe. He says Atlantic mackerel stocks have grown out of proportion, leading to excess demand on the food of whales, seals, sea birds, salmon, and mackerel itself.

This lack of food has also led to starvation and very slow growth of young salmon at sea, which are now more vulnerable to predation and disease than before the mackerel “explosion”. For instance, a young salmon from the Corrib catchment, in the west of Ireland, makes a perilous journey to the Norwegian Sea feeding area, swimming alongside hungry mackerel during its 2,000km migration.

Irish and British salmon stocks have diminished more than Norwegian stocks, despite 1.3m tonnes of salmon being farmed in Norway and only 200,000 tonnes in Ireland and western Scotland. Dr Holt says that southern salmon have to travel for much longer distances than the average Norwegian young salmon and are therefore at greater risk of becoming mackerel prey.

Letter re Effect of government removal of salmon farms on sea lice infestation of juvenile wild salmon in the Discovery Islands

https://www.irishexaminer.com/property/homeandgardens/arid-30852286.html

Long term monitoring of the survival of salmon during the marine phase of their life cycle at Bushmills Salmon Station shows a decline from around 30% returning from the sea prior to 1997 to less than 5% today.

https://www.daera-ni.gov.uk/articles/salmon-conservation

3 Reasons to Avoid Farmed Salmon

https://time.com/6199237/is-farmed-salmon-healthy-sustainable/

https://alexandramorton.typepad.com/alexandra_morton/2023/08/the-fish-are-talking-thank-you-trudeau-and-ministers.html
Rick Routledge, Effect of government removal of salmon farms on sea lice infestation of juvenile wild salmon in the Discovery Islands 

East Coast
New evidence of migration of young salmon leaving Ireland

https://www.afbini.gov.uk/news/go-north-and-swim-fast-new-evidence-migration-young-salmon-leaving-ireland

West Coast

https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Concentration-plots-of-the-simulated-migration-of-Atlantic-salmon-post-smolts-a-for-the_fig4_257029802

https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Observed-lengths-of-2-year-old-post-smolt-Atlantic-salmon-captured-in-the-Northeast_fig3_257029802

Alternatives to open pen fish farms

https://www.farmersjournal.ie/salmon-of-knowledge-are-fish-farms-to-blame-for-lower-wild-salmon-numbers-765479

Salmon parr hatcheries - arguments for and against
https://www.wyeuskfoundation.org/salmon-hatcheries-in-the-wye-and-usk-the-arguments-for-and-against

Same by NASCO
North Atlantic Salmon Conservation Organization
https://nasco.int/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/2017ThemeBasedSession.pdf

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