The Missing Salmon Alliance in the Press
© Richard Davies
The UK’s press and publications are fundamental to the goal of making sure that the issues of Atlantic Salmon rise to the top conversations about Britain’s wildlife. After all, not only have Salmon been staples of Britain’s culture, and habitats, they’re also key markers in understanding the health of Britain’s quiet places.
As such, it’s been important that we ensure the Press can cover the extent of the issues, ranging from disastrous agricultural practices to new invasive species. One of the issues Salmon face comes from under exposure, being a much less glamorous (but far from less important) topic for conservation stories than furry, land-based alternatives.
John Ingham, a 16-year veteran Journalist, broached that very issue in his article on The Daily Express’s website, which has more than a quarter million unique visitors each month. He suggested some of the Salmon’s struggles came from its image when compared to more easily marketable animals like the Panda. Ingham wrote of destructive agricultural practises leaking pesticides, and fertilisers, into British rivers and the dumping of sewage, by water treatment companies into our waterways. In this expert article, we hear from Stuart Singleton-White, Head of Campaigns at the Angling Trust and a Missing Salmon Alliance spokesperson, about the urgent need for government action on behalf of salmon.
Whilst Ingham’s expert article did a great job of encapsulating the perception of Salmon, and the issues they face, Mark Bilsby did an excellent job of showing that Salmon aren’t just an obscure fish.
In his interview, broadcasted on ITV Border News, the CEO of the Atlantic Salmon Trust gave reference to early Pictish carvings of Salmon, as a signifier of their relevance to British culture. Likewise, he made clear that the issues of Salmon reflect issues of a much wider scale and, with the aid of ITV News’ graphics department, detailed how efforts are being made to monitor and understand the issues that Britain’s Atlantic Salmon face, but not after detailing the last 25 years 70% decline in Salmon. These methods, namely the tagging of salmon and the use of acoustic monitoring devices at key points along certain rivers.
On the 28th of March, The Scotsman also weighed in on these methods on their website drawing in 130,000 unique visitors to their website. In their article, they reported on the expansion of tracking studies, by the Atlantic Salmon Trust, from the east coast to the west coasts of northern England and Scotland. Likewise, they interviewed Dr Lorna Wilkie, and further stressed the importance of these tracking studies in identifying any problems Salmon face in their journey from the riverine spawning grounds to the sea and oceans.
That said, there are other issues facing Britain’s Atlantic Salmon that also made their way to the press. Scotland’s oldest daily newspaper (Founded in 1747), The Press & Journal, put Philippa Gerrard, their environment writer, up to the task of tackling awareness about a new invasive species threatening Atlantic Salmon. Her article focused on sightings of Pacific Pink Salmon in the River Dee and stressed the important role North Eastern anglers have to play in spotting, identifying and reporting these non-native Salmon. Likewise, she made clear the dangers an invasive species can have in terms of not only heightened competition, but new parasites and diseases.
Coverage has not only been focused on the issues either, on the 15th of March, thefishsite.com highlighted the addition of Fisheries Management Scotland and the Rivers Trust to the Missing Salmon Alliance for their website’s seventy thousand monthly unique visitors. With quotes from David Mayhew, the Chairman of the Missing Salmon Alliance, Alan Wells and Mark Lloyd(CEO’s of Fisheries Management Scotland and The Rivers Trust respectively) the article not only highlighted the importance of the MSA’s work, but shone a light on the integral cooperation at the core of the organisation’s success.
As an Alliance of five 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