PROMAS
The Atlantic salmon in is an amazing creature in the Barents Sea area. It transforms from a freshwater fish to a seawater fish with all the physiological changes involved. It migrates across thousands of kilometres from the feeding grounds to coastal areas. It returns accurately to the river and even the riffle where it was born, to breed and re-start its life cycle. All this captures human imagination.
Project Conserving our Atlantic salmon as a sustainable resource for people in the North (CoASal) has examined the changes in the salmon stocks, analysed threats, and in doing this, the project has successfully involved different stakeholders and people of the coast. The video below summarizes the contant of the project.
Salmon stocks face multiple threats
More and more wild salmon populations become threatened, most likely because of multiple factors, including global climate change, intensive development of salmon aquaculture industry, introductions of foreign fish species and habitat destruction. Another major threat, where knowledge status is poor, is the transmission of various pathogens from farmed to wild salmon and outbreaks of “dormant” diseases due to an increase in river and sea temperatures. New fishery regulation measures are carried out to maintain conservation limits and to harvest salmon stocks sustainably.
The CoASal project has studied the growing threats Atlantic salmon populations face today with climate change, growing cage culture industry and emerging diseases. The project has also examined and documented the effects of the new sea salmon fishery regulations. As a result, the project has published 24 reports about the research done on the project. It has raised awareness on the Atlantic salmon also by arranging public events for audiences who are closely connected to the salmon fisheries, and by publishing awareness raising materials. The project has had good connections with appropriate bodies: fishermen associations, administrative bodies and research institutions. In doing all this, the project has contributed to saving the Atlantic salmon.
Project: Conserving our Atlantic salmon as a sustainable resource for people in the North (CoASal)
Lead partner: Office of the Finnmark County Covernor, Vadsø
Other partners:
- Knipovich Polar Research Institute of Marine Fisheries and Oceanography, Murmansk
- University of Turku, Kevo Subarctic Research Institute, Utsjoki
- Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Department of Aquatic Resources, Uppsala
- Institute of Marine Research, Bergen