What we do - Salmon, Trout and Coarse Fishing
Salmon fishing rights in Scotland are privately owned. Owners may be land owners who, as riparian owners also enjoy the right to fish for other species in rivers running through or adjacent to their land, or may be other individuals or organisations. Statutory responsibility for ensuring the conservation and management of salmon stocks has been devolved to the local level and is undertaken principally by District Salmon Fishery Boards ( DSFBs). It is for them, primarily, to determine how this is carried out. Nevertheless, Scottish Ministers have overall responsibility and this is exercised on their behalf by this branch.
It is this branch (known as the Freshwater Fisheries Branch) who, for example, deal with requests by Boards to introduce measures for the conservation and management of salmon stocks, such as regulations to alter fishing times, or methods of fishing including types of baits and lures. Salmon and sea trout stocks are under threat and the Branch comes under strong pressure to allow the shooting of birds and seals which prey on the declining stocks.
The work of the Branch is not restricted to salmon and sea trout however. Fisheries for brown trout and other freshwater fish species form important and growing sectors in the leisure and recreation markets, particularly in rural Scotland. We have the responsibility for developing policy relating to the sustainable development of these fisheries.
The management of salmon requires international cooperation, and the head of Freshwater Fisheries Branch is a member of the EU delegation to meetings of the North Atlantic Salmon Conservation Organisation ( NASCO). This is an international body, established in 1984, with the objective of contributing to the conservation, restoration, enhancement and rational management of salmon stocks taking into account the best scientific evidence available to it. NASCO consists of a Council, three regional Commissions and a Secretariat. The Council is made up of representative of all Parties (including the EU) and meets annually to discuss the status of salmon stocks and make recommendations on appropriate action.