Hypocrisy: A German film company have made a video that has appeared on You Tube titled ‘ Can Norway’s Wild Salmon be Saved’ (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVOXMoJUBag&list=PLovlAKbQVz6D2c8fc_GNgofSbJQsSfHVd). The premise of the documentary is summarised in the text accompanying the video
‘Factory farming is threatening to wipe out wild salmon populations in Norway – due to the dramatic spread of parasitic salmon lice. Can the wild salmon still be saved? On Norway’s vast salmon farms, a parasite is causing mass deaths of fish. Salmon lice have gotten out of control, infesting not just farmed salmon but also the wild salmon that swim between the sea and Norway’s rivers. The parasites are finding their way into open water from the open-net cages of off-shore salmon farms, where millions of fish swim. Fishing enthusiasts, scientists and environmentalists are fighting to preserve the wild salmon as well as the culture it represents. Their numbers have fallen from over one million to less than 400,000, and experts fear a new low. The falling numbers mean many rivers are closed to fishing.’
Unfortunately, the documentary does not provide any evidence that the collapse of wild salmon numbers has anything to do with sea lice. It just accepts that there are sea lice and there are also declining numbers of wild salmon and thus the two must be connected.
The part of the video that I found most of interest was when they said that environmentalists are sounding the alarm about sea lice and wild fish and then the video cuts to a shot of Alv Arne Lyse who is described as the chairman of the Norwegian Hunting and Fishing Association. He is standing on a riverbank with a fishing rod in hand. He may well be chairman of the organisation but the NHFA website (njff.no) describes him as the Project Leader for Wild Salmon and part of the specialist’s department. He is described as working to make salmon farming more eco-friendly and above all, to protect wild salmon. He says it is immoral that a single industry can destroy nature like this. It is robbing future generations of the opportunity to fish for wild salmon. He showed the documentary images of trout with high lice numbers and in his view, this is proof of the damage caused by salmon farming. He said it makes him so sad. The documentary says that research has found that 100% of farmed salmon could be infested with lice over the course of a year.
The documentary then follows Mr Lyse to a local river. They say that not being able to fish for salmon would be unthinkable for many Norwegians. They describe fishing as a cornerstone of the Norwegian way of life. That is why fishing enthusiasts like Mr Lyse are committed to protecting fish as well as catching them. Mr Lyse is filmed fishing and then actually catching a salmon, even though it is spawning season and the river is closed to fishing. However, Mr Lyse is described as fishing for research purposes, although the purpose of this research is not clarified. Instead, the documentary says that the fish will be used to restore the rivers salmon population. He takes the fish to the local hatchery where it is scanned to see if it is tagged as a hatchery fish, which it isn’t. Scale samples are also taken. Of course, taking a scale sample and scanning the fish for a tag could have been carried out on the riverbank and the fish immediately returned. What happens to the fish is not immediately apparent. More later.
Mr Lyse is then filmed entering the doors of the Institute of Marine Research in Bergen, where scientists conduct intensive research on the life of salmon lice. The documentary repeats that Mr Kyse is chairman of NJFF and hence is often in contact with researchers such as Ørjan Karlsen, head of the national research project on salmon lice. Dr Karlsen is an expert on the environmental impact of fish farming. He and his team are researching new ways to combat salmon lice because current methods are becoming increasingly ineffective. The documentary also mentions that Dr Karlsen is a member of the Expert Group that monitors the spread of lice on salmon farms. If the number of dead fish reaches a certain threshold the panel recommends the introduction of breeding restrictions. Dr Karlsen explains that salmon farming is regulated by the Traffic Light System which is based on decisions made by the group of experts. We monitor a large proportion of the farmed salmon that die from sea lice. If the level reaches 30% the industry must reduce production by 6%. This obviously has a major impact for the industry. There are powerful economic interests involved. Two lawsuits have already been filed against these decisions and there is the threat of further lawsuits from those who do not agree with our decisions.
Watching Mr Lyse having free access to the laboratory at IMR makes me wonder as to whether anyone from the salmon farming industry is afforded such privileged admittance to this centre of sea lice knowledge. I only know that I., with a fish related PhD and fifteen years of sea lice research, finds it incredibly difficult to engage in any discussion with scientists at IMR. I don’t know if Mr Lyse has any scientific qualification or whether being a keen angler is sufficient prerequisite to be able to discuss sea lice with Dr Karlsen, but it does seem that IMR are happy to talk to those that agree with their view and not with those who don’t.
Earlier this year, I did have a short-written exchange with Dr Karlsen who wrote that his knowledge of Scottish salmon is meagre. Dr Karlsen wrote that there has been a general decline in salmon populations due to altered marine survival, which has been related to environmental changes. However, he added that he does not know if it affects Scottish populations. He refers to two papers both of which clearly highlight the Northeast Atlantic Ocean, which I am sure is where Scotland is located.
The impression is very much that unless the research is from Norway it is not important or relevant, In addition, as most of the work is undertaken by a small group of scientists, who all have connections to the Expert Group, it seems that salmon farming will be forever dammed by Norwegian science, irrespective of what research elsewhere shows.
The documentary ends by visiting Mr Lyse’s home, where he is preparing a wild salmon for a dinner for him and his friends. The fish looks suspiciously like the fish he caught for research purposes. I am not the only one to think this as the comments left by viewers will attest. The documentary had suggested that the fish would be used to help restore the local salmon population but to do this the fish would have to be stripped of eggs or milt. Mr Lyse’s wife asked him as he prepared the fish whether the fish was a male or female. Just before he was to cut into the fish he replied, ‘let’s see’. If the fish had been used for breeding purposes, he would have known what sex it was.
He says these days wild salmon is pretty special. He is very proud to serve a salmon he caught himself Mr Lyse says that is sad that it has come to this. He doesn’t say whether he is referring to the salmon on his table or the fact that he reminisced that there were plenty of fish in the rivers in the 1970s.
I have always made it clear that I think the problems for wild salmon occur out at sea, although angling doesn’t help maintain numbers. Perhaps, if Mr Lyse was not so proud to serve wild salmon to his guest but rather be proud to leave the fish in the river, maybe stocks would be in a better shape today. As chairman of a so-called environmental organisation, he should know better than to go fishing when the river is closed to fishing and especially at spawning time.
The documentary ends by saying that for wild salmon to thrive clear environmental controls must be imposed otherwise the parasite that is killing wild salmon will continue to spread. Sadly, the only thing this documentary has achieved is to spread the nonsense promoted by the wild fish lobby that salmon farming is to blame for the lack of fish today.
Hypocrisy 2: Salmon Business reports that river owners in Western Norway have clashed with regulators about how best to protect wild salmon stocks. The issue is the growing presence of otters in salmon rivers.
In particular, river owners from the Gloppenelva in Vestland report that otters have taken a significant share of the few wild salmon returning this season. Kjell Petter Solhaug of the Gloppenelva River Owners Association said that half eaten fish have been found on the riverbank and cameras have recorded otters going through the salmon ladders. They estimate that 10% of salmon counted into the river have been lost to otters.
The Association applied for a licence to cull the otters even though they are protected but their application was rejected as there was a lack of preventive measures in place.
Norwegian Salmon Rivers, the representative organisation said that the issue is not the otter but the poor state of wild salmon stocks. Sea lice for example have left salmon vulnerable to predators. General Secretary Torfinn Evensen said that wild salmon are in crisis, and it is important to protect them. It may be that we will have to sacrifice some otters in the future in order to have more salmon.
Researchers at NORCE say that the problem is not too many otters but too few salmon. They say that this highlights the conflict between protecting a once endangered predator and safeguarding a species now on the red list.
I was especially interested in this story because the Gloppenelva is one of the Vestland rivers which is included in a recent analysis of salmon stocks. According to Statistics Norway a total of 5062 wild salmon have been killed by anglers fishing the river Gloppenelva since 1993. Over the last 32 years, the average annual catch has been 158 fish. Although numbers have collapsed in the last two years, the catch in 2022 was 171 fish, all of which were killed. Over recent years, the catch has been relatively stable, even showing a slight increase, so for Norwegian Salmon Rivers to suggest that salmon farming has impacted Gloppenelva and this is why the otters are now having a greater impact is simply nonsense.
The reality is that long term changes in salmon stocks which have been ignored by the scientific establishment in favour of attacks on the salmon farming industry are the reason why salmon are now in trouble. Sadly, otters are now also a scapegoat and those who say that their interest is to protect wild salmon are more interested in salmon fishing than the fish. Salmon fishing may once have been embedded in Norwegian culture but retaining this culture seems to be more important than safeguarding the wild fish. Of course, this view is not unique to Norway but is also prevalent wherever there is a salmon river to be fished.
Hypocrisy 3: Wild Fish, the environmental charity, also known as the representative organisation for salmon and trout anglers have just launched their annual fund-raising auction.
On their website they say that they have been a charity since 2008 and that they are committed to the conservation of freshwater fish species and their habitats. They say that we are in a biodiversity crisis and that they exist to reverse the impact this has for wild fish. They say we do this by seeking to eliminate the threats they face in fresh and coastal water to achieve a goal of sustainable populations of wild fish.
The threats to wild salmon are incorporated into the Likely Suspects Framework developed by the Atlantic Salmon Trust. We know that since records began in 1952, around 6 million wild salmon and sea trout have been sacrificed in the name of sport. Anglers may now be reticent to kill wild fish but the impacts of removing significant numbers of fish every year for over seventy years must have had an impact. If this was about cod, this would be described as over-fishing.
Against this background, it seems that the main theme of this charity auction is fishing. In fact, 83% of the lots are for fishing experiences, with the majority being in English rivers reflecting the southern English base for the organisation. Just 12% are from Scottish rivers with one lot offering fishing in the heart of the salmon farming industry. All the fishing lots except two are for salmon or trout fishing. The exceptions are for sea bass and Indian Ocean fish.
The makeup of the auction lots really reflect the aims of Wild Fish since their membership is made up primarily of salmon and trout anglers. Perhaps, if the majority of lots had nothing to do with fishing, Wild Fish might be able to say that their interest is in protecting wild fish but now it is clear their aim is to protect wild fish so their membership can continue to fish for them for sport.