The River Tweed Commission is very pleased that the Environment Agency is following international best practice and calling a halt to mixed stock fisheries.
Recent genetic testing work on Salmon has shown that 70% of fish caught by the North East drift net fishery are of Scottish origin, demonstrating just how mixed that fishery is, and how many fish have been prevented from reaching their home rivers.
When the autumn was the main run on Tweed for Salmon, the drift net season was too early to exploit it. However, now that the main Salmon run is changing and becoming earlier and it is inside the drift net season, the chances of impacts on the fish stocks would increase in the future.
Records indicate that June is now starting to become a much more productive month for the drift nets, and so the Environment Agency’s halt to the nets should mean that more fish reach the Tweed.
View the Environment Agency press release here
