Two stories, one from Canada and the other from Ireland, within two days of each other in March, described in graphic detail the plight of wild salmon, stocks of which have been falling rapidly, with disastrous effects on both countries.

In Canada a report from the House of Commons fishery committee stated that spawning levels are so low on British Columbia's Fraser River that the commercial, recreational and aboriginal sockeye salmon fisheries will be gone in three years.

In Ireland a body known as the Border Regional Authority is lending its voice to a campaign to save the Republic's dwindling salmon stocks.

The Canadian committee report calls for a prohibition on the use of gillnets on parts of the Fraser, as well as increasing the enforcement of fisheries regulations on the lower Fraser. It says the fear of confrontation with First Nations groups led in part to poor enforcement of regulations.

The report also cites record high temperatures in the river as a cause for the unprecedented drop in numbers, and adds that sockeye runs are unlikely to build back up to last year's levels before 2020.

The Irish Border Authority, which includes public officials and local councillors in counties Louth, Monaghan, Cavan, Sligo, Leitrim, and Donegal, is urging measures be taken by the Government to stop salmon netting in coastal rivers.

The authority's chairman, Cllr. Padraig McNally, said the matter is of major concern to all coastal areas and to those who derive their livelihood from fishing. He added: "We will be making a very strong case to the Government for the abolition of salmon netting which has already depleted many rivers of stocks and has devastated many of our traditional salmon beds."

Wild salmon stocks in both the Pacific and Atlantic are reaching dangerously low levels. In addition to over-netting, fish farms have also been blamed for their effect on natural stocks. A recent study by Canadian researchers found that infection levels of parasitic sea lice in wild juvenile salmon near a salmon farm were 73 times higher than normal. Their findings have been published in the science journal Proceedings of the Royal Society.

A University of Alberta team sampled fish every 1-4km along the migration route of young pink and wild chum salmon as they moved towards the farm.

"Sea lice production from the farm we studied was four orders of magnitude -- 30,000 times -- higher than natural. These lice then spread out around the farm", said Marty Krkosek, the lead author of the report.

"Infection of wild juvenile salmon was 73 times higher than ambient levels near the farm and exceeded ambient levels for 30km of the wild migration route."

Juvenile salmon carried almost no sea lice prior to the farm but became heavily infected as they approached it.

According to Andrew Dobson, an animal epidemiologist from Princeton University, says researchers were reporting similar effects in Scotland, Norway and Ireland.

The possible danger to human health of eating chemically fed salmon from fish farms has been documented previously in this e-zine.

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