[rotenone]

It's time to have an inclusive debate with all salmon and sea trout fisheries on this in the UK, hatcheries can and will restore stocks leading to economically viable fisheries.
Why are we still burying are heads in the sand and putting the onus on science to find a solution where hatcheries along side habitat improvement and predator will get the job done...?
I guarantee they will be part of salmon fishing in the future anyway why not bring them in now before rivers are scraching around to find broodstock or bringing genetic from other sytems in.

Skjern River Guiding

• R E C O R D • R U N • I N • 2022 • During the late fall/early winter of 2022 a research program where made the To estimate the number of the total salmon run of 2022 in river Skjern… The result...

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[Jockiescott]

As far as I understand, the hatchery is such a small part of the of the overall Skjern project.

Habitat restoration. Flood planes. Buffer zones between agriculture and feeder streams. Removing drainage.

The Skjern project has been going on for years. The river is in such good condition now that they could probably scrap the hatchery altogether and still have massive amounts of fish returning.

The Skjern project should be a lesson to rivers Europe wide. But no, we'll just keep building roads and housing estates along our rivers and allow agriculture to drain land and pollute rivers with slurry and silage effluent.

If ever there was a case of "Build it, and they will come", the Skjern project is the prime, shining example of it.

 

[rotenone]

I speak to some Skern anglers quite often through fly tying , I don't think a single one would like to see the hatchery dissappear of course they are not are not a magic bullet but if fish numbers can be increased whilst all the other work is in going on to me its a no brainer , one thing is for sure no fish, no anglers and no one to push the other solutions.
The rivers near me were fantastic but they are empty of fish I can't see anyone engaging in a conversation about habitat improvement with nothing to fish for in the short term.

It's a sad fact but its unlikely we will be fishing for truely wild salmon in our lifetime , most genetics have been destroyed or altered in all but a special few rivers , you only have to look at run timings, size and shape of the fish changing to realise most rivers have been gentically compromised by one form or amother I think the idea of giving nature a helping hand sounds great in reality we should accept that hatcheries are going to be integral certainly in the British Isles the way things are going .

We are yet to see the full impact of the Pacific salmon escapes which could be hugely damaging.

I

 

[Jockiescott]

Here is a great read about the Skjern project...

The Ugly Duckling - Denmark's Skjern

ASF’s mission is to conserve and restore wild Atlantic salmon and their ecosystems.

www.asf.ca

Basically, salmon had been virtually wiped out.

The work to restore the Skjern started in 1987 and didn't finish until 2002. 15 years in total.

The lower river once measured 19km. After bends and meandering had been restored, the lower river now measures 26km.

Don't get me wrong. If ever there was a river that required a hatchery project to get the river back on its feet again, the Skjern was definitely it. And it's certainly paying off now. However, if they'd put hatchery fish into the old river, they simply would not be getting anywhere near the numbers back that they are now.

 

[gwelsher]

If ever there was a case of "Build it, and they will come", the Skjern project is the prime, shining example of it.

I agree that hatcheries are not the magic panacea, but they are an integral part of the solution. As I have said before it is no good having a 5* hotel if it ain't got any guests.
You only have to look at the Wye where £23m has been spent on habitat improvement in the last 20 years and the catch has crashed to 300 odd fish.

 

[keirstream]

Until we get to grips with predator control, both Marine and Avian, all we would be doing is helping stock a larder for them to feed off and multiply.
Then deal with the explosion in housing, reversing increasing agricultural and human run off, hill drainage and rewilding schemes and yes, it might just be a viable option.
Until then????
I take it that contolling this problem is the no1 priority on the Skern??

 

[Jockiescott]

I agree that hatcheries are not the magic panacea, but they are an integral part of the solution. As I have said before it is no good having a 5* hotel if it ain't got any guests.
You only have to look at the Wye where £23m has been spent on habitat improvement in the last 20 years and the catch has crashed to 300 odd fish.

But wouldn't you agree that the increase in chicken farms hasn't exactly helped matters either?

Habitat restoration is helpful but cannot offset the effects of pollution from farming.

 

[Jockiescott]

I agree that hatcheries are not the magic panacea, but they are an integral part of the solution. As I have said before it is no good having a 5* hotel if it ain't got any guests.
You only have to look at the Wye where £23m has been spent on habitat improvement in the last 20 years and the catch has crashed to 300 odd fish.

I should say too Gary, if by some miracle the problems with farming on the Wye were finally dealt with, I would have no problem supporting a hatchery program to get the river back on its feet again.

 

[Tangled]

I thought this was food for thought

In the 1960s, the Danish government began straightening the rivers run and drain the extensive wetlandsthat had formed around the river mouth, to prevent the frequent floodings and allow for intensive farming in the region. However, the plan backfired. Without the frequent sediment deposits supplied by floodings, increasing amounts of chemical fertilizers and nutrients were needed to sustain a productive agriculture and the river, unable to spread the sediment across a wide wetland, silted up in many places. Furthermore, the land began to sink as it dried out and ceased to be replenished with fresh sediment. The slow sinking of the land, made the drainage infrastructure increasingly ineffective. wiki

 

[peterchilton]

I thought this was interesting

• R E C O R D • R U N • I N • 2022 •

During the late fall/early winter of 2022 a research program where made the To estimate the number of the total salmon run of 2022 in river Skjern…

The result have just been puplished and shows that a total number of 7553 Atlantic Salmon migrated into the Skjern during 2022 wich is the highest number ever recorded in a Danish salmon river!…

The numbers shows that 62% of the salmon were wild fish and 38% were salmon from the breeding program wich was released into the river system as juviniles….

The last time the calculation was made was in 2019 were a total of 5897 salmon with a number of 51% wild fish migrated up river

The Skjern Salmon still have a lot of challenges to conquer to forfill its full potential but as a rare thing in the World of the Atlantic salmon we are slowly getting closer…

As Gary Said, 26 years of habitat gardening and £25 + millions spent, huge salary bills and very few salmon

Innovative SNR ponds closed because the impotent NRW and the money hungry rivers trust couldn't stand it being successful.