Wild Fish Interests Mount Major Counter-offensive To The Beaver Introduction Programme
The Association of Salmon Fishery Boards has written to Environment Minister Mike Russell, outlining the absolute opposition of its members to any expansion of beaver introductions in Scotland. The letter expresses concern that he has reached decisions without an objective appraisal of the available research of the impact of beavers on salmon and sea trout populations. This follows the Scottish Government’s granting of a trial licence allowing the release of European beavers in Knapdale (Argyll) in 2009 and press reports that other locations are now under consideration.
Hugh Campbell Adamson, Chairman of the Association of Salmon Fishery Boards, commented: “Scotland’s salmon fishery boards have a statutory duty to ensure that there is free passage within our river systems for salmon and sea trout. In view of this legal obligation, we have no option but to maintain an unequivocal and fundamental objection to any further trial introductions of European beaver in Scotland”.
Mr Campbell Adamson continued: “The pro-beaver lobby maintains that these animals will have an entirely benign effect on migratory fish stocks. However the propaganda of the beaver lobby, notably the Scottish Wildlife Trust (SWT), is simply not substantiated by the existing scientific literature on beaver and salmon and sea trout interactions. Beavers are designed to dam streams. If their dams impede fish migration and thus access to the maximum amount of spawning habitat (and the available literature is conclusive that they do), then surely it is recklessly irresponsible to release them into the Scottish countryside”.
Dr Ronald Campbell, Biologist for the Tweed Foundation, has completed a comprehensive review of the available literature on the impact of beaver dams on Atlantic salmon and sea trout. His 23 page paper Beavers – What’s the dam problem? (see executive summary below) demolishes the SWT assertion that “there is little evidence from Europe and North America to indicate significant detrimental impacts of beaver on salmonid fish”. Dr Campbell explained: “It is abundantly clear that there is a disturbing gap between what is in the available literature and what the beaver lobby are saying about the literature. For example they need to respond unequivocally to the research findings of Mitchell and Cunjak, whose 2007 study showed that beaver dams completely prevented access by Atlantic salmon to a spawning tributary of the River Miramichi in Canada in five out of the 14 year period studied. The statement in the Lithuanian National Report to the Baltic Sea Trout Workshop of 2006 that sea trout stocks in four of their ten rivers were threatened by Beaver activity also needs to be at least noticed by the SWT in the information they present to the public, if they are to avoid the charge of being misleading”.
Roger Knight, Director of the Spey Fishery Board, commented: “We are, rightly, most careful not to introduce new species to our shores so as not to disturb nature’s balance. This applies as much to species that have never been here as to those which have been absent for hundreds of years, such as the European beaver. Whilst there is anecdotal evidence that beavers are beneficial or, at worst, benign to ecosystems, there is good scientific evidence to believe that they can cause great damage, especially to Scotland’s natural freshwater fish stocks. Whilst this might have been unnoticed in Scotland so long ago when human pressure on land and water was low, it is not reasonable to expect those that depend upon the rural economy for their livelihoods to accept compromises to it. Freshwater fisheries are hugely important to Scotland’s economy and provide many hundreds of jobs; they must not be put at risk”.
Below is the letter from the Association of Salmon Fishery Boards to the Minister:
Over the last two years there has been a steady propaganda campaign in favour in introducing the Beaver to the wild in Scotland. In the course of this many statements and assertions have been made that their establishment in the wild would bring many wonderful benefits to Scotland’s natural environment and that only “ignorant landowners and anglers” who thought that Beavers ate fish would be against this.
These statements have now, however, been critically appraised, and their reputed support in the scientific literature examined – and an alarming gap between presentation / propaganda and reality has been shown, particularly in regard to the effect of Beaver dams on salmonid populations.
None of the previous introductions of Beaver to the wild (to northern France, the Netherlands, Denmark, the Baltic countries and Sweden*) has been to countries with extensive populations of wild salmon, like Scotland, so research on dams has not been a priority, and there is now therefore very little in the way of relevant information. In Norway, where Beaver survived naturally in one part of the country, they have not yet re-populated the main Salmon and Sea-trout areas, so little of relevance can be drawn from there.
The only research relevant to the question of whether Beaver dams reduce salmonid spawning success is that which provides actual measures of abundances of fry upstream and downstream of dams. All instream structures, man-made or natural, can obstruct spawning fish – but most are partial barriers that reduce juvenile numbers upstream rather than preventing them from being there altogether. Unless such quantitative comparisons can be made it simply cannot be said if any sort of obstacle in a stream has an effect on spawning or not. This is commonplace in fisheries management – but the Beaver lobby claim every casual observation of salmonids spawning upstream of Beaver dams as definitive evidence that dams have no impacts at all.
The one paper in the scientific literature, from Canada, that does give quantitative data on salmon fry upstream and downstream of Beaver dams over a number of years found that “spawning in most years (is) confined below the large complex of dams”, so that spawning in most of the study stream was unusable by salmon in most years. The FAQ section on Beavers on the SWT website, however, says “There is little evidence from Europe and North America to indicate significant detrimental impacts of beaver on salmonid fish” which is simply not compatible with these findings.
This SWT statement is also refuted by the Lithuanian National Report to the Baltic Sea-trout workshop of 2006 in which “Beaver activity” (= dam building) was listed as a threat to Sea-trout stocks in four out of their ten rivers.
There has also been an assumption by the Beaver lobby that Salmon and Sea-trout have no existing problems in running up their spawning burns but this is simply not true. Monitoring of spawning runs of Sea-trout up a small tributary of the River Tweed has shown that a particular level of water flow is needed at a particular time in the Autumn for the fish to run up this burn. Without the right flow at the right time, no fish at all make it. Similar requirements must exist all over Scotland and adding Beaver dams to these already difficult situations could severely impact national stocks.
* Salmon in Sweden & Finland have been largely hatchery produced since extensive Hydro-power developments in the earlier 20th century.
Issued on behalf of the Association of Salmon Fishery Boards by Andrew Graham-Stewart. For further information telephone 01863 766767 or mobile no 07812 981531. Alternatively contact Andrew Wallace, Director of the Association of Salmon Fishery Boards, on 0131 272 2797 or mobile no 07798 666553.
1) The Association of Salmon Fishery Boards represents the interests of its members- Scotland’s 42 District Salmon Fishery Boards. The Boards are local, catchment-based fisheries management organisations, with statutory powers under the Salmon and Freshwater Fisheries (Consolidation) (Scotland) Act 2003 and, in the case of the River Tweed, The Scotland Act 1998 (River Tweed) Order 2006. The Boards are charged with managing and protecting salmon and sea trout stocks and fisheries.
2) Salmon angling is worth at least £70m a year to the Scottish economy – supporting over 2000 local jobs (often in remote communities).
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