Annual salmon count shows record low numbers of fish for a second consecutive year - Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust

The annual counting and tagging of juvenile wild Atlantic salmon on the River Frome in Dorset has shown a dramatic decline in numbers of fish being captured for a second year in succession, indicating a worrying downward trend which is reflected across the UK and Europe.

Since 2002, the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust has spent four weeks in late summer catching, weighing, measuring and microchipping the juvenile salmon, known as parr, that have hatched in this 35-mile long south of England chalk stream during winter and spring.

The aim every year is to tag 10,000 salmon parr – but this summer, the Fish Research team only managed to scrape together 3,226. This is another record low after they only managed to find 4,593 last year.

GWCT’s Senior Research Assistant Will Beaumont is leading the fieldwork, which took place between 22 August and 17 September. He says: “Last year was the worst we’ve ever had, but this year has been catastrophic. This follows on from yet another year where we have seen a new record low number of adults returning from sea to spawn, confirming the continued steep decline of salmon in our rivers.”

Numbers of wild Atlantic salmon have crashed by some 80% over the past 40 years. Rivers which had tens of thousands of salmon in the 1980s now only have a few hundred in them. They are now classified as endangered in the UK and on the IUCN Red list along with other threatened species like elephants, pandas and polar bears.