Report on the Activities of the North Atlantic Salmon Conservation Organization in 2000 - 2001

There has not been much good news concerning the abundance of wild salmon stocks in the North Atlantic for many years. Indeed, for the last decade every year has brought evidence of low abundance and, in response, NASCO and its Contracting Parties have taken many harsh measures to reduce exploitation, including greatly reduced quotas, effort reductions and closure of fisheries. In addition, catch and release is increasingly being employed in recreational fisheries. Many sacrifices have been made but, so far, there has been little indication that the salmon are responding. The reasons for this lack of response are probably complex, but it seems likely that the conditions in the sea are a major factor, because marine survival of monitored stocks continues to be low. There are some initial signs that the situation may be beginning to improve, but not enough to relax the restrictive measures in place. Indeed, in some situations further restrictive measures may be necessary. In our view, NASCO and all of its Contracting Parties should be proud of the measures that have been taken. They were difficult but they were necessary. We now need to know more about why salmon are not thriving during their time in the sea, and the new International Cooperative Salmon Research Programme outlined here is an exciting opportunity to try to coordinate and expand research on this phase of the salmon's life-cycle.

Clearly, the serious situation facing wild salmon stocks requires new approaches, not only to the management of fisheries but so as to address the various threats to the well-being of these stocks. That is why NASCO has introduced the Precautionary Approach to its work internationally, and the Contracting Parties have agreed to use the same approach to their work nationally. In this report the first steps in implementing the Precautionary Approach are outlined. These apply to the management of salmon fisheries and of the freshwater habitats on which the salmon depends. This approach, which better takes into account uncertainty in scientific knowledge, will not be an easy process but it should offer us opportunities to re-think the way that we manage wild species, such as salmon, and the environments in which they live.

Since the formation of NASCO, a whole new industry, salmon farming, has grown up. It now has far more fish in sea cages than there are wild fish. NASCO is certainly not opposed to salmon farming. We do, however, have the international obligation to protect wild salmon stocks and in this regard the risk of adverse genetic, disease, parasite and environmental impacts cannot be ignored. Here, new steps in developing enhanced cooperation between the salmon farming industry and those concerned with wild stocks are described. The first fruits of this cooperation are internationally agreed guidelines on containment of farmed salmon, which will oblige each Party to produce national action plans to minimise escapes to a level as close to zero as is practicable.

We believe that NASCO is taking the right steps to conserve and restore wild salmon stocks, and we hope that all the sacrifices made will result in improved abundance, of which there are now some very tentative signs.