Salmon wars as anglers attack net catchers

THE organisation which represents the UK's 100,000 salmon and trout anglers yesterday called for "robust" action by Holyrood against the coastal netting stations it claims threaten fragile stocks of the king of fish.

The Salmon and Trout Association (SATA) has accused the remnants of the country's coastal industry - which employed 3,000 netsmen a century ago - of indiscriminately killing "one of the truly iconic species".

Anglers claim the impact of the 80 remaining netting stations has made a "mockery" of attempts by river boards and salmon-beat owners to maintain and restore stocks in Scotland's rivers.

But the netsmen, whose industry dates back centuries, last night accused the anglers of trying to drive them out of business to line their own pockets.

The war of words erupted after SATA announced details of a campaign, under the slogan "The Net Loss", to end salmon netting around Scotland's coast.

Andrew Graham-Stewart, a spokesman for the association, said

: "These fisheries indiscriminately catch any salmon passing by, regardless of where they are heading or the strength of the population in their home rivers.

"The netsmen are taking fish at random, and that is what make a complete mockery of attempts to manage stocks."

George Holdsworth, Scottish policy director for the Anglers' Association, called on the Scottish Government to, "give an unequivocal signal that it wishes to see a major reduction in netting effort".

But Willie Shearer, a former fisheries scientist who now acts as consultant to the Salmon Net Fishing Association of Scotland,

said the vast majority of the 80 surviving coastal netting stations were run part-time by "hobby" fishermen.

He added: "The angling interests are using salmon conservation to increase the pounds in their pockets.

They forget that salmon netting goes back thousands of years in Scotland."

A spokesman for the Scottish Government said it would support anybody's right to fish sustainably and will continue to support buy-outs of fishing rights on a willing buyer, willing seller basis. "However, salmon fishing rights are private, heritable titles and the rights of these fisherman must also be considered."