£2 wild Salmon

2 fish today, 1 for myself of about 5lb from the Cotter and a 6lb fish late on from the Boil for Calum McRoberts.

I've just been reading the Comment by Andrew Flitcroft on page 3 of the October issue of Trout & Salmon.
Disgusting, is one of the less choice words that springs to mind! Netting Salmon from our coasts is still going strong and due to the dry summer the nets have been bulging by all accounts. The Salmon waiting to enter our rivers to spawn have been taking so much of a hammering that the value of wild Salmon has dropped through the floor, (as little as £2 per lb) yet they were still being netted!
The fact that the Scottish Government allows coastal netting to happen at all makes the blood boil.
It does not take a genius to work out that when all wild Salmon stocks have been depleted to the point that anglers very rarely catch one in the river that there will be no anglers at all.
I recently heard that the Montrose netting outfit have bought extra vans to cope with their increased catches.
Scotland relies heavily on tourism and tourism in turn relies heavily on Salmon angling, to the tune of £120 million a year. That cash is spread out over a vast array of business's, employing a fair amount of people i'd imagine!!
Now i'm no politician and have no real interest in politics but you'd think a Scottish Government with any brains would realise that a healthy Salmon angling industry would bolster an economy that they want to exist on its own!( No vote from me by the way)
Whilst i'm at the ranting stage of this post how on earth can we allow Salmon farming and Salmon netting, surely the point of farming is to let the wild fish survive and thrive. I'm not the biggest fan of Salmon farming either but if there must be farming why do we feel the need to net the wild stocks?
A lot of time, effort and resources are spent in trying to bolster wild salmon stocks and we let netting continue without a noise being made..It is an absolute sin in this day and age...A tragedy waiting to happen!!
Thank you Alex Salmond