What is really behind the decline in wild salmon? | Letters

Readers respond to an editorial on falling numbers and debate what can be done to help fish and the wider ecosystem Your editorial (15 October) lamented the “dismaying” decline in wild salmon in British waters, commenting rightly that climate change and failures of marine conservation have contributed to this collapse. Another significant contributing factor has been the explosive growth, enthusiastically promoted by the Scottish government, in salmon farming around the Scottish coast. This activity has been shown to be damaging to wild salmon stocks, through the transmission of disease and parasites when farmed salmon escape, as they do in large numbers, from the nets that contain them. The day after your editorial, you ran an article on the “gifts” being declared by Labour ministers (More ministers declare gifts after Keir Starmer’s decision to repay £6,000, 16 October). These include a declaration by Ian Murray, the Scottish secretary, that he accepted £320 of tickets to a football match in Liverpool in September thanks to Salmon Scotland. He was in Liverpool to meet the chief executive of the industry body that describes itself on its website as “the voice of the Scottish salmon sector”.