A scientific committee has endorsed that the Atlantic salmon in Spain be catalogued as a ‘endangered’ species. The ruling must receive the approval of the Government and the autonomous communities.
The Atlantic salmon has experienced a very sharp decline in its populations, something that was evident this season when hardly any specimens were found in the rivers of Spain. Many organizations have long been calling for the species to be catalogued as ‘endangered’ within the Spanish territory.
Experts have determined that the Atlantic salmon should be listed in the Spanish Catalogue of Threatened Species, which means that all fishing of the species will be completely prohibited and that the involved autonomous communities must take measures to conserve it and to protect and restore its habitats.
The Atlantic salmon is going extinct: the experts say so
The Scientific Committee advising the Committee on Fauna and Flora, an body that brings together the central government and the autonomous communities for the conservation of wild species, has ruled in favor of cataloguing the Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) as an endangered species in Spain.
The inclusion of salmon in the Spanish Catalogue of Threatened Species, whose distribution area in Spain is limited to Galicia, Asturias, Cantabria, the Basque Country and Navarra, would entail a ban on its fishing, as well as the obligation to take measures for the conservation of the species and its habitat.
The Government commissioned a report from the Committee in April, after the conservation organization Saxífraga formally requested the Ministry for the Ecological Transition to include the species in the Catalogue in the category of ‘Endangered’ across the entire national territory.
Populations have plummeted
In the organization’s view, the species must be included in the catalogue because it meets, at least, two of the necessary conditions outlined in the royal decree that implements the List of Wildlife Species under Special Protection (LESPRE) and the Spanish Catalogue of Threatened Species, which highlight the species’ unfavorable status.
These two conditions are that in the past 30 years the species has disappeared from 50% (half) of the rivers where it was present and that over three generations salmon populations have fallen by 70% in Spain.
Support must be total
In its ruling, the Scientific Committee confirms the scientific validity of the proposal and confirms that those two criteria for cataloguing the species as ‘endangered’ are met, according to sources from the Ministry for the Ecological Transition.
After experts have shown support for the cataloguing of the Atlantic salmon, the next step will be to inform the autonomous communities, via the Committee on Fauna and Flora, where the proposal will be discussed.
The scientific report arrives after the worst Atlantic salmon fishing season on record, both in Asturias (108 captures, compared with the 6,893 of 1969) and in Cantabria (three captures), the two most salmon-rich autonomous communities in Spain and the only two that this year allowed the fishing of the species in their rivers.
