
Desde hace unos meses opera un blog en España (PROTECT THE SPANISH SALMON) cuyo único y muy loable objetivo es la protección de los últimos salmones españoles, a los que la nueva normativa de pesca que pretende ser aprobada en Asturias pone en serio peligro. Durante este invierno hemos estado bajo el agua con alguno de estos últimos salmones, maravillándonos de que un viaje tan lleno de visicitudes finalice al fin en nuestras aguas en forma de pequeños grupos reproductores de animales excepcionales. Más que hacer un esfuerzo por explicar las sensaciones que hemos sentido al ver aparecer desde la oscuridad de los pozos a los salmones en freza os remito al post publicado en el blog y firmado por Juan Delibes, cuyas palabras he repetido mil veces en todas las conferencias en las que hemos participado.
Desde BICHO queremos apoyar cualquier medida de protección de nuestros salmónidos migradores en este caso y de cualquier miembro legítimo de nuestra fauna en general; por eso os invitamos a que entréis al BLOG y apoyeis sus iniciativas en contra de la matanza de salmones que se pretende consolidar ante nosotros.
Hay un futuro para nuestros salmones y depende en una gran medida de lo que hagamos NOSOTROS AQUÍ AHORA. Responsabilicémonos de lo que es sin duda nuestro.
Carlos Rodríguez

NO ROMPAS EL CICLO DEL SALMÓN, LOS SALMONES MUERTOS NO FREZAN (all photo by Carlos Rodriguez 2012)
The Atlantic salmon, the king of the river, is in a critical situation. It is classified in the Atlas and Red Book of Continental Fish of Spain as a vulnerable species; that is to say, this species is presently at a high risk of extinction in its wild habitat in the very near future unless conservation measures are taken.
Despite these facts, the Principality of Asturias has proposed a model of fishing that will doubtlessly increase the risk that the Atlantic salmon is up against. Contrary to all scientific evidence, the fishing season proposed by the new government almost triples the present capturing period of this species during their migration to their reproduction sites, multiplies the number of permitted captures from three salmon per fisherman per year to three per week. At the same time, this proposal practically eliminates the catch and release method. This new model promotes the capture and killing of the largest and best salmon. The idea is to bring forward the fishing season to the third Sunday in March, favouring the sacrifice of salmon with several years of sea life. In other words, it will be admissible to kill the most valuable salmon with no contemplation towards creating areas or periods of non-kill fishing. Finally, the number of fish per person will not be reduced, meaning that an individual fisherman will be able to legally kill up to 100 salmons per season, approximately.
It should be remembered that the Atlas and the Red Book of Continental Fish of Spain were written in 2001 and in this last decade the number of salmon has descended drastically as can be seen through the reduction of registered captures, reaching only 356 salmon in Asturias in 2009. Due to this reduction, the previous Government of Asturias took certain measures to try to remedy the obvious regression of the species. Perhaps these measures were not the best or the bravest for our salmon, but at least were a starting point for the recovery of healthy population.
From a point of view of conservation the new proposal is a series of incongruous ideas, which if we permit them, would take the salmon populations in Spain to the limit, this brings many more associated problems due to Spain being the southernmost point of the salmons distribution in Europe and as such the populations are much more vulnerable due to the fact that our salmon have to make longer more hazardous journeys to their feeding grounds.
At the same time there is an enormous contrast when we think that in the North of Europe which has stable very numerous populations have much more responsible management methods which are dedicated to the conservation of the species, favouring catch and release and the rural development which is linked to the presence of salmon in their rivers.
Protect the Spanish Salmon
….