Scottish Government

1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 The Formation of the Scottish Mixed Stock Salmon Fisheries Working Group

1.1 The Strategic Framework for Scottish Freshwater Fisheries ¹ published in July 2008 contains a range of 'priorities for action'. These are initiatives designed to help fill gaps in our knowledge and allow Scotland to move towards its shared vision for freshwater fisheries: Scotland will have sustainably managed freshwater fish and fisheries resources that provide significant economic and social benefits for its people.

1.2 One of the priority action projects is to develop a strategy for mixed stock fisheries (Project 2.5). The Strategic Framework outlines the scope of the project: "We shall review all aspects of mixed stock fishing, including its impact on management and conservation, taking advice from FRS² and other scientists. We shall take account of international trends, guidelines and obligations. We shall also look into the financial issues concerning Mixed Stock Fishing. The project will culminate in a strategy report with associated timescales."

1.3 The Steering Group of the Scottish Freshwater Fisheries Forum, considered and agreed on the membership of a Scottish Mixed Stock Salmon Fisheries Working Group during the summer of 2008, and the Scottish Government on behalf of the Steering Group appointed an Independent Chair and Independent Secretariat in August 2008. The Scottish Mixed Stock Salmon Fisheries Working Group (hereafter referred to as the Group) first met in Edinburgh on the 12 ^th of November 2008. Its final meeting took place on 17 ^th November 2009.

1.2 Terms of Reference, Aims and Objectives

1.4 The Group considered its terms of reference, and agreed that it would review all aspects of mixed stock fishing. It would establish what is currently known about mixed stock fisheries, identifying the impact of such fisheries on management and conservation and it would make agreed recommendations for their future management based on evidence and good practice.

The Group would:

• Draw upon any information that is available in the public domain
• Identify gaps in knowledge, and flag up these gaps to the research community and to its funding sources
• Take into account international trends, guidelines and obligations
• Assess the financial, social and economic issues concerning these fisheries.

In the light of these considerations the group was charged with preparing a report that included strategic recommendations for the Steering Group of the Freshwater Fisheries Forum, Scottish Government, and all parties involved in mixed stock salmon fisheries management.

The report was intended to be submitted to the Scottish Government by 31 December 2009.

1.3 Membership of the Scottish Mixed Stock Salmon Fisheries Working Group

1.5 The membership of the Group was:

The Group's work was assisted by Scottish Government:

1.4 Working Methods

1.6 The Group agreed that it should base its work on the best evidence available. The Group's initial aim was to reach conclusions on the basis of consensus. We worked hard towards this aim but it became clear in the final discussions on the draft report that this could not fully be achieved. As required by our remit we have considered where more work is needed to provide better evidence and we commissioned an independent review of the available research on the economic and social aspects of salmon fisheries to support our assessment of these issues. We have carefully considered the framework of international and EU regulation and we have looked at the effectiveness of different approaches to management. We provided an opportunity for open discussion at the Scottish Freshwater Fisheries Forum in April 2009, and have made all meeting papers and minutes available on our website.

1.7 We recognised that in the current state of knowledge we would be faced with having to consider recommendations which may be necessary and appropriate but for which the current evidence base may be equivocal or incomplete. We also recognised as a Group that it was incumbent upon us to consider the precautionary approach, and this principle is discussed in detail later in the report.

1.5 The Key Issue

1.8 This report is set against a background of Atlantic salmon (S almo salar) stocks under threat across their northern hemisphere range, and declines in sea trout populations throughout the United Kingdom. Through membership of the European Union delegation at the North Atlantic Salmon Conservation Organisation ( NASCO), Scotland fully supports attempts to limit the excessive exploitation of Atlantic salmon, and by extension sea trout, in an effort to protect stocks against further declines.

1.9 The exploitation of salmon and sea trout from more than one stock - Mixed Stock Fisheries ( MSFs) - is considered by all northern hemisphere countries (with Atlantic salmon fisheries) to hold particular problems for management practices. These fisheries can be damaging because they have the potential to intercept any salmon or sea trout in their vicinity, regardless of where those fish are heading or the strength of the population in their natal rivers. NASCO was originally established to set quotas for the amount of salmon that could be taken at West Greenland and around the Faroe Islands, the most damaging MSFs at that time. These fisheries are now under strict control, allowing the vast majority of salmon reaching maturity to return to their native countries, where local management takes over.

1.10 Together with Norway and Northern Ireland, Scotland and England have come under increasing pressure to establish a policy for managing its remaining MSFs. This is a particularly sensitive issue in Scotland, as fishing is prosecuted under heritable property rights, rather than as an activity licensed by Government, as in most salmon producing countries.

1.11 We have recognised in this report the need to strike a balance between conservation and socio economic issues. However, conservation comes first, because it is the only consideration that will help to ensure that the species exists in the future. Conservation does not discriminate between fishing methods unless of course the methods themselves raise conservation issues.

1.6 Definition of Mixed Stock Fisheries

1.12 We needed first to agree a definition of 'mixed stock fisheries'. This issue of definition has been considered fully by other organisations, notably the North Atlantic Salmon Conservation Organisation ( NASCO) and we agreed that it was important to have regard to the internationally accepted definition. We did however need to understand the meaning of that definition; and we also considered it important to understand the reality of what happens in coastal waters, estuaries and rivers themselves. As part of this task we needed to define carefully the terms 'stock' and 'population', since there is the potential for these terms to be misunderstood ³.

1.13 A stock is a group of individuals, not defined by biology (although usually considered to comprise a number of populations), but by management needs. For example one can refer to the West Greenland stock, the North East Atlantic Commission multi-sea-winter stock, the Scottish stock, the Tweed stock and the upper Tweed stock. All of these uses of "stock" are acceptable. The scale chosen depends on the level at which management is applied, and often, the level at which data availability allows for management. In practice, many home water countries manage those fish returning to spawn to a single river catchment, by regulation of fisheries at the level of the river stock.

1.14 A stock is distinctly different from a population, which is a clearly defined biological term and comprises a group of individuals of the same species occupying a particular geographic area. Populations may be relatively small and closed, as on an island or in a valley, or they may be more diffuse and without a clear boundary between them and a neighbouring population of the same species. For species that reproduce sexually, however, members of a population interbreed either exclusively with members of their own population or, where populations overlap, to a greater degree than with members of other populations.

1.15 The internationally accepted definition of mixed stock fisheries ( MSF), agreed by the North Atlantic Salmon Conservation Organisation ( NASCO), is: "A fishery exploiting a significant number of salmon from two or more river stocks." The Group noted that Scotland's Implementation Plan for NASCO at paragraphs 3.3 - 3.4 adopts the NASCO definition and agreed that for the purposes of its work it must adopt that definition. Scotland's Implementation Plan also acknowledged that mixed stock fishing outwith estuarine limits as with any other form of exploitation present a threat to the conservation of stocks and particular difficulties for management. Scotland's Fisheries Management Focus Area Report at paragraph 4.1 accepts that whereas fisheries inside estuary limits may be MSFs, those located outside estuaries are almost certainly MSFs as regards salmon. In respect of sea trout, those located in rivers may be regarded as potential MSFs. We consider in the following Chapter the extent to which all types of legal fishery may be regarded as 'mixed stock' in the sense that they may take fish in greater or lesser numbers from more than one catchment. While the Group was established largely because of issues relating to coastal net fishing, we also emphasise the need for effective management measures within rivers and estuaries and make appropriate recommendations, since any solutions to conservation concerns must take into account all pressures on the stocks.