Atlantic salmon – Coming home earlier, smaller and in a compressed time period

The annual EPA conference took place in June 2024 in Galway.  Summarising 70 years of research in the Burishoole Catchment, Elvira De Eyto outlined in a very concise and illuminating video presentation how climate data and water quality have changed within this index catchment over 70 years. Our interest is primarily the data surrounding Atlantic salmon and the presentation demonstrated that wild Atlantic salmon are returning earlier, returning at a smaller size and during a more concentrated time period. Survival from ova to smolt appears relatively stable with less than 1% survival but survival at sea has declined alarmingly. One interesting note is that since the closure of the drift net fishery there has been no increase in survival at sea indicating a substantial decline since 2007. The catchment continues to be below its conservation limit thus compromising the output of smolts from the catchment. 

The video is well worth watching and given its long term data is essential to our understanding of Atlantic salmon. Burishoole Video 

There are other video which you may find interesting and these can be viewed here. EPA Conference 2024