Telling a wild salmon from a farmed one can be tricky, especially if you don’t want to kill or injure the fish in question. To solve this problem, Dr Elizabeth Adey of the Scottish Association for Marine Science (SAMS) have developed a way of using fish scale analysis to determine the origin of a salmon.

Fish scales grow like tree rings and preserves a chemical record of the water in which the fish lived as each new section of the scale was formed. The new method, which was developed in collaboration with the National Oceanography Centre in Southampton, checks the amount of manganese present in the fish scale. During her work, Dr Adey discovered that the scales of farmed salmon have a very high manganese content compared to the levels found in scales coming from their wild counterparts.

“This is probably caused by manganese supplements in fish food, and also because conditions underneath the fish cages promote recycling of manganese in the water column,” Dr Adey explains. Using the new method, Dr Adey and her team was able to distinguish between farmed and wild salmon with 98% accuracy.”Because of its non-destructive nature, this technique could be used to assess the proportion of farmescape salmon present in any river, and therefore identify where additional conservation and wildlife protection measures are needed,” says Dr Trueman, a geochemist with the University of Southampton’s School of Ocean and Earth Science, based at that National Oceanography Centre. “Salmon farming is a big, intensive business. In 2006, around 130,000 tonnes of salmon were farmed in Scotland for the table. Wild populations of Atlantic salmon are in serious decline across their whole range and the total wild population returning to Scottish rivers in the same year is estimated at less than 5000 tonnes. Wild fish are rare and expensiveso there is a strong incentive for fraudulent labeling. Farmed fish also escape into rivers, harming the wild population. Unfortunately, it can be difficult to distinguish between farmed and wild fish.“

In the future, the new technique may also be able to point out which individual fish farms that need to implement more efficient methods for keeping their salmons in. In some Norwegian rivers, more than 50 percent of the salmon are now escapees. Escaped fish can carry disease to wild populations, and there is also a risk of genetic pollution since farmed fish haven’t gone through the same natural selection process as wild fish.

No less than 215 anglers from throughout the UK participated in the 2009 Scottish Sharkatag organised by the Scottish Sea Angling Conservation Network (SSACN).

The Sharkatag had three goals:

– To highlight the perilous state of the endangered shark species.

– To gather data to support claims for their protection.

– To press politicians and fisheries managers to recognize the needs of the sea angling community and its contribution to the Scottish economy.

The information gathered during the Sharkatag will feed into SSACN’s Scottish Shark

Tagging Programme; a program dedicated to broaden our knowledge of shark, skate and ray stocks in Scottish coastal waters.

Attending anglers caught, tagged and released various shark species from boats, kayaks and the shoreline of Solway in South West Scotland, and what they found was worse than expected.

“It really worries me that many of the tope packs have failed to

show this year“, says Ian Burrett, SSACN’s Project Director. “The whole region seems to be void of the expected male breeding stock and the fish caught were mostly immature females, typically under twenty pounds and a few solitary females in the 50-60 pound range; Luce Bay was especially poor for the time of year.”

The Tope shark (Galeorinus galeus), also known as the School shark, Soupfin shark and Snapper shark, is a type of hound shark found at depths down to 550 metres (1800 feet). It can reach a length of 2 metres (6.5 feet) and is listed as Vulnerable at the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

The situation was equally worrisome for several other species of shark and ray.

“Around two hundred tope, smoothhound and bull huss were tagged over the three days and that can only be described as poor compared to what the total should have been, says Burrett. “Combined with the lack of rays tagged, only three throughout Sharkatag, it shows how urgently plans are needed to helpprotect and regenerate the stocks. Twenty year ago virtuallyevery boat would have recorded several mature tope and rays.”

You can find more information at the Scottish Sea Angling Conservation Network’s website www.ssacn.org and the website of SSACN’s Scottish Shark Tagging Programme www.tagsharks.com.

New laws proposed for managing the seas around Scotland include a year round ban against killing seals. If passed by MSPs, the new laws will make killing or injuring a seal an offence except under licence or for animal welfare concerns.

Licences will be given in certain circumstances, e.g. to prevent serious damage to fisheries. Killing without a licence will only be allowed in certain situations where animal welfare is a consideration, e.g. “mercy killing”.

Current legislation on seal conservation dates back to the 1970s and only makes license a requirement during the breeding season.

The curbs are a part of Scotland’s very first Marine Bill. The proposed laws will cover the Scottish sea from the shoreline to the 12-mile limit and is an attempt to balance competing interests through a legal planning framework.

The Marine Bill is not only focused on wildlife but aims to provide better protection for marine archaeology and wrecks as well. Under the Bill’s wider provisions, marine planning partnerships will be formed with local bodies, and a more straightforward licensing system involving less red tape is planned for areas like renewable energy.