The River Tweed Commission today announced that it has introduced a carcass-tagging scheme for net caught Salmon and Sea-trout from the Tweed District. The scheme is similar in all practical detail to the new byelaws that came into force on 30 January 2009 in England and Wales requiring all Salmon and Sea-trout caught by nets and traps south of the Border to have a sequentially numbered carcass tag affixed as soon as possible after capture.

The Tweed tags will assist merchants and netsmen alike to ascribe traceability to Tweed fish, the number of each fish enabling origin and date of capture to be recorded.

Nick Yonge, Clerk to the Commission, said:

“Together with the existing ban on the sale of rod-caught Salmon and Sea-trout, this scheme will assist in preventing illegally caught Salmon and Sea –trout from reaching the market.  Because only fish taken in legally authorised netting operations may be sold, and because fish caught by these legal nets will carry carcass-tags, it will be much more difficult to dispose of illegally caught fish. This pioneering scheme will identify Tweed fish in the market and give assurance to buyers that the fish are of true origin and that they have indeed been taken legally. Merchants, fishmongers and those in the catering industry are key to the success of these measures. The tag guarantees that the purchaser is buying a genuine, wild fish from the Tweed District.”

Mr Yonge continued:

“Although the new carcass tagging scheme is currently voluntary, the Tweed District’s active legal netsmen have agreed to adopt it for the 2010 season. To date the scheme is the only one of its kind north of the Border. It is expected that other parts of Scotland will soon introduce similar schemes.”

The 2010 tags are coloured blue.

To read more on how the RTC's new scheme operates, see the attached leaflet