Salmon at Risk From Financial Crisis

A couple of stories have surfaced this week which suggest the future for wild salmon both in North America and Europe may have become less certain as a result of the recent economic slowdown.

The economy in the USA slowed down first following the collapase of the sub-prime mortgage market and the resultant folding of several banks. Hundreds of billions of dollars of Governement money was used to bail out several others teetering on the brink. The problem for salmon? Much of this money was earmarked for habitat improvement in rivers which require significant improvements.

In King County, this couldn’t have come at a worse time, as it coincides with local’s attempts to reinstate the Puget Sound chinook salmon, which is all but extinct in the region.

We told in the middle of last week, how similar attempts to reintroduce sea trout to the Shetland Isles since 2002 have been extremely successful – such efforts cost money, though, and, in times of financial crisis, it is unsurprising that Governments concentrate on only what they consider the most vital spending.

More on the Kings County problems can be found here, however, another issue is likely to surface should the economy take a big swing for the worse: that of poaching.

There have been some anecdotal reports of an increase in deer poaching of late, and it would be relatively unsurprising, were we to see significant levels of unemployment, if the poaching of farmed trout and salmon (both wild and farmed) became more prevalent. Two men have been caught netting sea trout in Rye harbour (East Sussex, UK) this week.

This is not just an issue of stealing income, however, where salmon are concerned, widescale poaching could prove serious to stock levels already suffering because of sea lice from farmed fish and other major hurdles.

Right now, though, there aren’t many salmon in the rivers to poach – and restocking efforts may be taking a back seat for the forseeable future.