Warning Over Salmon Parasite Threat

By FRANK URQUHART

TWO offensives were launched yesterday against a twin threat to Scotland’s GBP 75 million salmon angling industry.

Gyrodactylus salaris (GS), a parasite native to the rivers flowing into the Baltic Sea, has wiped out salmon populations in at least 20 Norwegian rivers and represents the single greatest danger to the 3,000 jobs dependent on a thriving salmon industry north of the Border.

There are fears that entire stocks in every major salmon river could be killed should the lethal parasite enter Scotland’s river systems, as native fish have no resistance to GS.

And yesterday on the Dee, Scotland’s premier spring salmon river, an initiative was launched to urge anglers to play their part in preventing the alien invader from gaining a foothold in Scotland.

On the Tay, meanwhile, a separate offensive was being announced against an ever-present human threat to the industry – the salmon poacher.

The new GS initiative is aimed at reducing the risk of one careless angler who has been fishing abroad accidentally introducing the parasite into Scotland through contaminated gear.

Experts have warned that it would take only one tiny parasite entering a river system to start an epidemic that could wipe out entire stocks.

A spokesman for the government’s Fisheries Research Service in Aberdeen said: “These leech-like parasites are remarkable in that they give birth to live young. The daughter parasite is the same size as the mother, and inside this daughter there is already a developing grand-daughter, in a ‘Russian doll’ arrangement.

“GS can build up to very high infection-intensity of several thousand parasites on a single salmon parr.”

Mark Bilsby, the river director for the Dee, said that between 95 and 98 per cent of Scotland’s wild salmon population could be wiped out, should GS gain a foothold in the country.

He added: “It’s a very real threat. GS is a strange wee beastie.

“It’s born pregnant and reproduces every four days so it takes only one animal, half the size of a grain of rice, to come into Scotland to start this epidemic.

“If this parasite, which is native to rivers in the Baltic Sea and has spread to many other European countries, came to the Dee it would cause a catastrophic decline in fish numbers and would kill off the local angling industry, resulting in the loss of 500 jobs locally and approximately 3,000 nationally.

If there is no salmon, there is no salmon angling and there’s no jobs.”

But Mr Bilsby stressed that a few simple precautions by anglers could prevent the parasite arriving in the first place.

GS is capable of surviving for several days in damp conditions, such as plastic bags and wet angling equipment.

A new code, issued to anglers who have fished in areas where the parasite is present, urges fishermen to kill the parasite by either drying their angling equipment at a minimum temperate of 20C for at least two days, heating their gear above 60C for at least an hour, or deep freezing for at least a day.

Meanwhile, a new joint operation to combat salmon poaching was launched by Tayside Police and the Tay District Salmon Fisheries Board.

The offensive, codenamed Operation Salmo, will involve police wildlife officers and water bailiffs working more closely together and carrying out joint operations against criminals at poaching “hotspots”.

Alan Stewart, Tayside Police’s wildlife and environment officer, said: “After a quiet spell, when salmon stocks were low, poaching is definitely on the increase.

“The River Tay is a prime target for salmon anglers and poaching on a commercial scale, in addition to adversely affecting salmon stocks, has the potential to damage the local economy.”

(c) 2007 Scotsman, The. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.