Compared to earlier times, the rivers are now quieter. When you speak with people who have been observing Atlantic salmon for a sufficient amount of time, the first thing you notice is the lack of fish in areas where there used to be plenty, not the data or the policy documents. The same thing is being said in several languages by guides, biologists, and Indigenous knowledge holders on rivers in Nova Scotia, the Highlands of Scotland, and parts of the Restigouche in New Brunswick: the fish are not returning in the same manner.
What the river watchers have been describing for years is confirmed by the figures. The International Council for the Exploration of the Sea has estimated that within the last 25 years, wild Atlantic salmon populations have decreased by about 70%. Many rivers’ returns are at all-time lows. The species is officially categorized as endangered in a number of jurisdictions. The decline is a gradual accumulation rather than an abrupt collapse, as the species absorbs pressure from several directions at once and does not have enough time to recuperate between blows.
The pressures have been thoroughly documented. Sea lice are produced at levels that juvenile wild salmon cannot withstand due to open-net pen salmon farming, which is concentrated in coastal waters that wild fish must go through during migration. Farm animals can transmit diseases to wild populations. The genetic characteristics that enable wild salmon to travel particular rivers and endure particular conditions are diluted when escaped farmed fish interbreed with wild ones.
The issue at the freshwater end is exacerbated by habitat degradation, including as dams obstructing migration pathways, deforestation eroding stream banks, and agricultural runoff damaging spawning gravel. Additionally, the survival rates of young fish in the North Atlantic feeding grounds that wild salmon rely on before returning to spawn are declining due to rising ocean temperatures brought on by climate change.
The speed of the response, rather than the intricacy of the threats, is what frustrates researchers the most. There is a Wild Atlantic Salmon Conservation Policy in Canada. There is a Wild Salmon Strategy in Scotland. Since its founding in 1984, the North Atlantic Salmon Conservation Organization has coordinated management throughout the species’ range.
However, environmental organizations and independent scientists contend that these frameworks were designed for a previous era, one in which issues could be resolved over years rather than months, and where regulatory procedures had time to grind through consultation periods before anything actually changed. The agreements that NASCO oversees are not legally enforceable. It may take years for Canada’s implementation plans to become legally binding. Important agricultural areas like Tasmania, Chile, and New Brunswick still lack the legislative tools necessary to stop or significantly punish salmon escapes.
Catch-and-release regulations, seasonal closures, and river-by-river limitations are examples of the angling bans that typically follow each crisis; they treat the symptom without addressing the underlying problem. The endangerment of wild Atlantic salmon is not due to recreational anglers. Conservation experts have been publicly denouncing the policy decision to restrict their access while maintaining open-net aquaculture operations in the same coastal waters for years, with little impact on the course of legislation.
Outside of the official frameworks is what’s really making a difference, at least in certain places. Fish haven’t had access to spawning habitat in decades, but dam removal projects on coastal rivers in Maine, New Brunswick, and portions of Europe have restored it. Stream structure and water quality in degraded tributaries are being restored through watershed restoration initiatives.
Through organizations like the Unumagi Institute of Natural Resources, indigenous communities in Atlantic Canada are managing local salmon populations in ways that government agencies have not been able to duplicate by fusing traditional ecological knowledge with modern science. Compared to a national policy, these initiatives are narrower in scope. Additionally, they are quicker, more precise, and more sensitive to the actual conditions in the water.
It’s really unclear if any of it will be sufficient. In contrast to conservation news releases, the scientists who research this most closely are not optimistic. They speak cautiously and qualifiedly about genetic diversity, population thresholds, and uncontrollable ocean circumstances. There is less noise in the river. Whether the work taking place on its banks can surpass that occurring in the ocean offshore is the question.
