The Cultural and Historical Significance of Salmon
David Attenborough states that wild salmon have declined by 70% in 25 years. Wild salmon could easily become extinct, in the UK, in our lifetime.
The cultural and historical significance is immeasurable – imagine Scotland without salmon, it would be like Scotland without whisky. This remarkable fish has been held sacred by the Druids, Celts, Picts and countless indigenous communities. It is a quintessential symbol of wisdom. Indeed, Christianity’s earliest symbol was a fish.
Cities, such as Glasgow, have been built on wild salmon. The salmon adorns town and city crests going back to mediaeval times. This revered vertebrate has inhabited the North Atlantic since the last ice age. Its importance cannot be underestimated.
Recently the diet of the Pictish people was revealed for the first time following a large-scale analysis of more than 100 skeletons buried in the Scottish Highlands. They are one of the most ancient and mysterious civilisations of Scotland and despite their seafaring lifestyle and proximity to the coast, they preferred a diet of barley and various meats to salmon. They were tattooed and decorated and although only around 250 Pictish stones survive, mostly along the Eastern coast from Caithness to Perth, many are decorated with salmon. Indeed, it seems they had a cult of the fish, namely salmon and dolphins.
Salmon, widely celebrated in Pictish lore were just too special to eat. The Picts disappeared from the historical record towards the end of the first millennium AD so this study was an extraordinary discovery.
Led by Dr Shirley Curtis-Summers from the University of Bradford, the skeletal analysis of 137 skeletons showed that a small Pictish community, which settled between 550 and 700AD, ate a healthy diet of plants and animal protein from small scale farming. It was one of the most important archaeological studies for decades and after the farming area came a monastery. The monks seemed to have a tiny amount of fish in their diet with some of the older monks eating slightly more suggesting a hierarchy. The monastery disappeared around 800AD after a Viking raid and became a parish church. The local people from the mid to late mediaeval period ate a lot more fish.
We have a lot to learn from the Picts. The Picts remind us that we urgently need to be more mindful of the wondrous creatures of a special significance to our culture and history – wild Atlantic Salmon before it is too late.
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