Local Anglers Raise £2,100 in Support for Missing Salmon Alliance
A grand total of £2,100 has been raised by Coul Fishings on the River Conon, Scotland, in support of the Missing Salmon Alliance.
Spring Salmon being played in the Gillanders pool on the Coul beat, River Conon
In an initiative to offer access to prime salmon fishing during a prime time of the season to junior and local anglers, Coul Fishings has raised £2,100 for the Missing Salmon Alliance in a raffle ticket style ballot.
Coul is a four rod beat on the River Conon in Scotland. The week’s fishing has been split in half to create four individual winners for the first half and a further four for the second half of the week. This allows for eight individual winners in total.
The MSA are advocating for the protection of freshwater habitats, the improvement of water quantity and quality, and the reduction of losses of salmon in our rivers, coastal waters, and the open ocean. The funds raised will go towards MSA led scientific research, lobbying for change, and direct steps on the ground towards supporting the health of wild Atlantic salmon.
This much valued, continued fundraising support comes at a time during which the Missing Salmon Alliance has recently welcomed the publication of the Scottish Wild Salmon Strategy, which recognises the urgency of the situation and the need for Scottish Government, Agencies, and the charity and private sectors to work together and coordinate action to prioritise the protection and recover of Scotland’s wild Atlantic salmon populations.
John Macaskill with seven year old Roddy Macaskill
John Macaskill, Head Ghillie at Coul Fishings, River Conon, said, “I am extremely grateful to beat proprietor Mr David Flux for allowing one of the best weeks of the season to be available to local anglers on a raffle ticket style basis, while raising money for an extremely worthwhile cause at the same time. We have raised a total of £2,100 this year through ticket sales. This has been a collective effort from everyone who has purchased a ticket and I thank every one of them for their continued support.
To continue being proactive we have to fully support organisations like the Missing Salmon Alliance. This helps enable them to carry out their hugely important work and projects to help achieve the outcome that collectively we all want, that precious Atlantic Salmon to be swimming our rivers for generations to come. In today’s society, to make any positive changes to the circumstances we currently find ourselves in we have to base all our opinions and sometimes opinions that may be glaringly obvious to us on the river, on science and evidence gathered over time. To make changes on any political or government level we have to have the full evidence documented to support our argument for a case. Whether this be determining the survival percentage of smolts leaving our rivers or to identifying individual predators that are causing mortalities with juvenile or adult salmon in marine/coastal or freshwater areas, fish farming or even climate change. For all of these we need this vital information. This will help strengthen our case to be able to grant licences to deal with these issues accordingly. Without these organisations and their tremendous work, Atlantic Salmon will not have a future.”
The Missing Salmon Alliance thank Coul Fishings for their continued support.
As an Alliance of six organisations, we will build on the existing work of our partners and maximise our impact by taking a coordinated approach and vital action in order to halt and reverse the decline of wild Atlantic salmon.
The goal of the Missing Salmon Alliance is to build an evidence-base to influence national and international decision-makers to regulate activities that adversely impact wild Atlantic salmon.
The Missing Salmon Alliance
The MSA is comprised of the following members:
Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust, Atlantic Salmon Trust, the Angling Trust with Fish Legal, The Rivers Trust and Fisheries Management Scotland.
https://www.missingsalmonalliance.org