Wild salmon netting rights on a stretch of the Angus coast have been bought out in an ambitious conservation move.
The Esk District Salmon Fishery Board (EDSFB) has signed a one-year lease for the coastal rights at Lauriston, between the north end of Montrose Bay and Johnshaven.
In a deal financed by the EDSFB, the Dee District Salmon Fishery Board and the North Atlantic Salmon Fund, the nets will not be fished for the duration of the lease.
The board said the aim was to increase the chances of salmon returning to rivers such as the Angus Esks to spawn.
The move comes after a year in which salmon catches on Scots rivers were at their lowest for more than half a century and against the background of continuing conflict between sporting and commercial interests.
In 2014 the Lauriston nets, owned by Murray McBay, declared a catch of 315 salmon and 126 sea trout.
EDSFB chairman Malcolm Taylor said: “The nets at Lauriston are strategically located and are likely to intercept salmon and sea trout destined for rivers in the Esk District as well as rivers to the north, notably the Dee.
“Both the EDSFB and the Dee Board have a track record of buying out or leasing netting rights, whenever opportunities occur, in the interests of salmon and sea trout conservation.
“This is particularly important at a time of poor marine survival of salmon_in order to ensure that as many salmon as possible, on their return from their ocean migrations, are able to access their rivers of origin”.
The latest report for the North Atlantic Salmon Conservation Organisation by the International Council for the Exploration of the Seas (ICES) on North Atlantic salmon stocks, published only last month, revealed that the 2014 catch was even worse than a 2013 figure which was the lowest since 1960.
Catches were at or below five and ten-year averages in the majority of countries, except Sweden, Finland, France, Spain, and Greenland.
Mr Taylor added: “ICES’ unequivocal advice is that ‘mixed-stock fisheries’, such as those at Lauriston ‘present particular threats to stock status’.
The Esk board is the statutory body responsible for the protection, preservation and development of salmon and sea trout fisheries in an area which includes the associated coastline and the North Esk, South Esk, Bervie and Lunan rivers.
The board believes coastal netting stations make the management of river stocks “almost impossible”
It says netting stations indiscriminately catch any passing salmon, regardless of the strength of the various populations in their home rivers.
An ongoing Scottish government consultation could lead to a ban on killing wild salmon, except under licence.