Hegra, Norway, July 9 (AFP/APP):Waist-deep in a rain-swollen river, Christer Kristoffersen cast his line, landed it gently on the water, and caught … nothing. Norway’s iconic wild salmon is in dramatic decline, a victim of fish farming and climate change.
“As a kid, in the early 1980s, there was so much fish in the river, you have no idea. It was packed with sea trout and salmon. We could catch 10-15 fish in one evening,” said the fly fishing enthusiast as he stood in the Stjordal river.
Despite decades of experience, the 52-year-old left the river empty-handed 10 days straight.
Wild salmon is now so rare that Norway in 2021 placed it on its red list of near-endangered species.
An ever-growing number of wild salmon, which hatch in freshwater rivers before migrating to oceans as adults, are not returning to their birthplace to spawn upstream.
They disappear at sea for as yet unknown reasons, though scientists suspect a link to climate change.
Only 323,000 wild salmon swam upstream in Norway’s rivers in 2024, against one million tallied annually in the 1980s, according to the Norwegian Scientific Advisory Committee for Atlantic Salmon, an independent body set up by the Norwegian Environment Agency.
That has sparked concern among sport anglers and those who make a living from the hobby, which has been part of Norwegians’ DNA ever since English aristocrats brought fly fishing to the country in the 19th century.
“Salmon fishing is very important for Norway, both for the local communities along the river valleys and for the economy and value creation,” said Aksel Hembre, vice president of the Norske Lakselver association grouping those who exploit salmon rivers.
“We attract a great deal of tourism in connection with salmon fishing.”
– Fishing quotas –
Following the drop in the number of returning salmon, authorities last year suspended fishing in 33 waterways and introduced new restrictions this year, including the closure of some rivers, shorter seasons and quotas.
That has been a heavy blow to tourism and the 60,000 to 80,000 sport anglers who indulge in their passion in rivers where the salmon population is considered sufficiently abundant.
While locals can do little about climate change — which leads to warmer waters and changing ecosystems — another culprit is fish farming.
Started in the 1970s, farmed salmon has grown into a $12-billion a year industry — Norway’s second-biggest export behind oil and gas — and created much-needed jobs.
Norway’s fjords are now dotted with hundreds of fish farms, each of their six to 12 floating cages holding up to 200,000 fish.
