 The next item of business is a member's business debate on motion 15657, the name of Rachel Hamilton on long-term decline in salmon stocks. This debate will be concluded without any question being put. Can ask those members who wish to speak in the debate to press their request to speak buttons now. I call on Rachel Hamilton, for a second time, to open the debate. Ms Hamilton, please. Thank you, Presiding Officer. Before I start, I would like to refer members to my register of interest as a hotel owner. I am delighted to present this motion to Parliament this afternoon. I thank the Presiding Officer for allowing those from the Angling and Fisheries Association's time to take their waders off before they came into the gallery. I would like to also thank them for their briefing notes and documents, which has enlightened me further to the issue of long-term decline in salmon stocks. Presiding Officer, with our striking scenery and richness of rivers, Scotland boasts some of the best fishing in Europe. From the fantastic beets along the spay and the D with the majestic highland backdrops to the pools of the tweed and the Tay, flanked by rolling agricultural lowlands, we really are spoiled for choice in Scotland. The value of Angling to rural Scotland is significant. It supports around 2,800 jobs and contributes £100 million to the economy, with the bulk of the economic benefit being felt in remote and rural areas. Areas that otherwise would not survive without the presence of Angling, game shooting and field sports are illustrated by the fact that the average spend of fishing tourists on trips in Scotland is substantial at around £5,000, with an estimated 80 per cent of expenditure occurring locally within 12 to 15 miles of the river. Unfortunately, over many years, we have seen the success of Scottish fishing take a knock, with all too aware of the issue of long-term decline in salmon stocks across Scottish rivers and the grave consequences that many areas right across Scotland are now facing. It has caught the attention of the likes of David Attenborough, who recently marked international year of salmon, by taking to YouTube to highlight the damage that intensive fish farming is having on populations of wild salmon. His Royal Highness, the Prince of Wales, has also voiced concerns lamenting at the 50 per cent reduction in salmon stocks along the river Dee. Some commentators have even gone as far to say that salmon could become an endangered species in our lifetime. On the subject of the Dee, I do not intend to discuss the pros and cons of hatcheries at this point. We can all acknowledge that there is no one single cause of the decline in salmon stocks on Scotland's river, and the picture is far more complex than we may imagine. In the latest fishery management Scotland's report, 12 high-level pressures on Atlantic salmon were identified. Those range from increased mean sea temperatures, acidification of the oceans, increased cyclicity in drought and flooding events, more invasive species and scarcer feeding opportunities, and they all play a part in the story. Importantly, we must remember that most of those are driven by climate change, too. We cannot forget the impact of intensive fish farming on the west coast, either. Many believe that salmon rod catches have declined most deeply on the west coast and have been more pronounced because of the expansion of intensive aquaculture, of which my colleague Finlay Carson will speak more. In my constituency, tweed faces much of the same problems as other east coast rivers, but it does not have its own unique set of challenges. For years, we saw drift netting on the Northumberland coast, which affected the salmon returning to the river at Berwick. Worryingly, some 16,000 salmon were taken by north-east nets in 2015. Thankfully, the Environment Agency is proposing to stop the taking of salmon from the majority of net fisheries by 2019. Although the pesciferous birds such as gusandus and cormorants and predatory animals, such as seals, have also taken their toll. I have not read the report, but I am very interested in what she is saying. Can she confirm that none of the reasons that were listed were trout anglers taking salmon? Of course, it is important that the range of views are taken from across the sector, and that we must take into consideration everybody, but that specifically was talking about drift netting. The impact of the decline of salmon fishing is being felt right across rural Scotland. We know that angling is worth £24 million to the border's economy. However, it is likely to be falling as a result of decreasing rod catches. Although there have been behavioural changes, such as anglers switching from a week-long fishing trip to just a few days, many are commuting from larger cities on a daily basis and not contributing directly to the economy, whether that is in the tackle shop or meals in restaurants. The impact of the decline is likely to affect young anglers too. It is very difficult to make angling an attractive sport to the next generation when stocks are decreasing and when the potential job opportunities are being eroded by a lack of spending in the rural economy. It is time that we took action and tackled those issues head-on. I welcome the Scottish Government's £700,000 funding to be spent on work to help to address the range of pressures that are related to the decline. That is a start, but we need to get all-stake holders involved—scientists, anglers and gillies—all round the table to forge a way forward. The wild fisheries review that was made several years ago aimed to address the issue, and it could have been a positive step forward. However, the wild fisheries bill was pulled, much to the frustration of many stakeholders involved, who believed that that could help to tackle the issues that are outlined in my motion. I recognise that the conservation of salmon regulations evolved from some of the recommendations, however it would be beneficial if the remaining recommendations were acted on sooner rather than later—for example, a national wild fisheries strategy. From studying previous committee sessions on the conservation of salmon regulations, it is clear that we lack sufficient data and evidence to implement scientifically sound river management plans. A one-size-fits-all approach to the whole of Scotland does not work, and we need to be turning our attention to local management plans that are flexible ones, that are regularly reviewed and subject to scrutiny. I believe that we also need to take a cautious, well-informed and balanced approach to the conservation and management of salmon stocks. There needs to be a fine balance between behavioural change and government regulation. As we know, the Scottish Conservatives and we on the benches are not too much in favour of bureaucracy. On the ground, we need to look at the whole ecosystem along the entire course of the river. The effective management of predatory birds and mammals will help salmon numbers to recover by giving smolts perhaps a chance to leave the river. We cannot ignore also the impact of fish farms in this either. Both of the parliamentary committees, the REC and the Eclare committees, involved in last year's inquiry into salmon farming, made it clear that effective regulation of salmon farms in order to protect world salmon is imperative. To conclude, Presiding Officer, I acknowledge that there is no silver bullet when it comes to reversing the declining salmon stocks. While today we have focused solely on salmon stock decline, salmon is the freshwater equivalent of the canary in the coal mine, an early warning system for something going wrong across the board. Healthy salmon populations are possibly one of the best indicators of healthy environment and every one of us will benefit from a healthy environment. If we do not take action now, it is not only our fragile rural economy that will take the hit in the long term and the short term, but it is our fragile environment in the long term. Thank you very much, Ms Hamilton. I call Michelle Ballantyne to be followed by Claudia Beamish. Can I thank Rachael Hamilton for bringing forward this important debate? At the end of last year, I was asked if I would be the link species champion for Atlantic salmon. I was delighted to take that on, but it has been a learning curve. I really didn't know anything about it when I set out, and what I have discovered has led to a number of worries. The Atlantic salmon is a keystone species, which means that any decline in stock has a direct and immediate impact on freshwater biodiversity, with the presence of salmon being a useful indicator of the health of our rivers. It is therefore imperative that we work to preserve wild salmon stocks to secure the future of our aquatic ecosystem. While many steps have been taken to protect salmon, exploitation in fisheries has been reduced significantly, but despite that, marine survival has decreased from a situation in which around 25 adult fish return to Scotland for every 100 juveniles—smolts, as they are called—leaving our rivers to the current situation where less than five adults now return for every 100. As Rachael Hamilton said, rod catches have reduced, with a knock-on effect on a fragile rural economy, reducing the ability of managers to raise money to support management and restoration activities. However, to gain a deeper understanding of the salmon's ecological importance, as well as existing conservation efforts for the species, I have visited and liaised with managing organisations such as the Neath district salmon fishery board and the Tweed Forum, and I have learned about the many projects that they oversee and how they hope to improve the robustness of wild salmon stocks. It is large-scale holistic projects such as the Neath fishery management plan that will be invaluable to improving the stocks. Those projects support salmon at all stages of development from creating a safer environment for salmon spawning to removing barriers to migration. They also support improved river use with renewable energy schemes and anti-poaching measures being a key area of work. It is quite worrying when you see that 94 of 173 rivers assessed by Marine Scotland are designated as category 3, which means that any additional pressures on salmon in these rivers is demonstrably unsustainable. Presiding officer, I am sure that we can all agree that more needs to be done to protect wild salmon and to encourage the growth of stocks. I would join the call on the Scottish Government to work closely with river management organisations and salmon farmers to help with the conservation efforts and to introduce substantive measures that draw on the experience and expertise of existing local groups. In this year of the international salmon, I was delighted to attend the conference for a short time on Friday. It was really interesting to hear about some of the issues that have played into the system, and the fact that climate change, the warming of the seas, has meant that the food stocks for the salmon appear to have moved. The invasion of the Pacific's pink salmon was introduced into the White Sea Basin in the 1950s in Russia, but it did not like the cold and it moved west. In 2017, we saw a huge influx of pink salmon. The initial advice was that it probably would not spawn, but spawning surveillance with underwater cameras now seems to suggest that that is beginning to happen. That kind of detailed work is what we are going to need going forward, and we really need to make sure that we support the experts that are doing this in every way that we can. I hope, as species champion, that I will learn a lot more and that I can contribute something to the debate. In this international year of the salmon, we have an opportunity to bring the problem of declining salmon stocks into the view of the public. I hope that the Scottish Government will make bold efforts to publicise the ecological issue of national importance. The Atlantic salmon is vital to the health of our rivers and our rural economy, and we must strive to secure the future of one of Scotland's most treasured species. I thank Rachael Hamilton for instigating the debate as her motion rightly recognises the worrying decline in our salmon stocks. The motion also recognises the importance of fishing to our rural economy through leisure and tourism and the job opportunities that it provides. I wish to highlight that what it does not stress is the importance not just for leisure and tourism from outside, which is important, but also the importance of local leisure for local people when they fish, not just in our big rivers that have been mentioned already, but in burns such as in Strathmore up in Sutherland. I will give one example where I fish as a child for brown trout, while my dad fished for salmon, but where local people are fishing, and that is really, really important. It is not just salmon, it is also sea trout and brown trout as well, and other forms of angling. Angling is vital for our economy, and it has to be for the long-term future to be sustainable. The system of three river gradings was established in 2016 to determine what level of exploitation of fish stocks is sustainable for each river. For this, as many will know, it means mandatory catch and release for some and for others. Some retention is permitted. It aims to strike the balance on rivers locally and nationally while recognising the overall downturn trend in salmon stocks. That is a challenge. In 2017, 98 per cent of rod caught spring salmon were released, as were 90 per cent of the annual rod catch. Our catch and release systems are the highest of any signatory to NASCO. There is clearly a commitment from the angling community, broad as it is, to fish responsibly as much of the rod catch and return is done on a voluntary basis. Within South Scotland, I am also aware of the pressure that the River Tweed commission put on the Scottish Government and has supported that to extend the closed time on the tweed to further protect fragile spring salmon stocks. I thank Gilly Ian Faw, who, in his brief, was succinctly outlined the significance of the salmon decline on the River Tweed, and I note the points made with care. In this and the last parliamentary session, my concern has always been to ensure that robust data is available to make informed choices, and I will continue to scrutinise that, along with others on our committee. Marine Scotland has consistently acknowledged this challenge, and I see the steps that are being made to improve the granularity of the science behind those assessments. More can always be done, and I expect to see the science in this area develop and progress, but I recognise the complexities of the issue. However, reversing the decline of salmon stocks needs to be tackled in a number of ways, not just by limiting fishing. There are environmental concerns to consider. Rivers are at a constant risk of pollution from industrial chemicals, agriculture and plastics, and fish stocks are an indication of the health of our rivers and our ecosystems, and climate change is also a serious challenge. Repairing and tree planting is one of the ways in which that is being addressed. As Fisheries Management Scotland has highlighted, there are many ways in which we need to tackle that, and planning and seaper must be more connected, as has been highlighted by Fisheries Management Scotland. Their briefing continues that it is vital that the conservation status of salmon is fully considered in all planning and regulatory systems. I ask the minister finally today to consider committing to taking forward an assessment of how, joined up or not, the regulation of safeguarding wild salmon and sea trout is, and whether that can be addressed by the Scottish Government. I thank Rachael Hamilton for bringing that forward and let's all do our best for the future of the iconic species of salmon. I, too, would like to congratulate Rachael Hamilton on securing this very important debate, which is vital to the rural economy of South Scotland and the borders that Rachael represents. Rachael has talked about that extensively, but she has also talked about Dumfries and Galloway in the west. Indeed, it is significant that Rachael's motion raises the issue of catches in four east coast rivers, the Tweed, the Spay, the D and the Tay. For many on the west coast, they look on enviously at those rivers, and there is certainly a perception that the west has been harder hit, and others have spoken about the effect of aquaculture, which I think that we will hear more of later. The benefits of angling to the economy of rural Scotland, as Rachael Hamilton's motion states, are significant, supporting 2,800 jobs and contributing £100 million to the Scottish economy. I am also grateful for the briefing today from Ian Farr, the gillie at Melrose, who outlines very clearly how important salmon is to tourism and what factors might explain the declining numbers and declining they are. I note the Scottish Government's own figures on the Atlantic salmon, which demonstrate a dramatic decline across the country by more than 50 per cent from around £1.25 million in the 1960s to £600,000 in 2016. As the Government has previously pointed out, and others have pointed out today, there is no single cause for this decline, and some of the impacts are inevitably beyond our control. It is essential that all stakeholders work together to do what they can to manage pressures that include the impacts of predation, barriers to migration and increased temperature due to climate change. I note with the admiration and approval of the steps that Mr Farr and other river managers are taking. Mr Farr, in Melrose, cannot make much of a dent in global temperatures himself, but, on his own doorstep, he is working hard. He makes some interesting suggestions about the need to remove man-made barriers, including obsolete ones, left over from the tweed industry. I note with interest his observations about the increasing number of predators, which he says feed on smalls 60 per cent of which he points out and never reached the sea. He tells us that cormorants, which are seabirds, are now numerous. On the tweed in Arust and Rutherford has up to 100 birds, and he says that seals are travelling up the river, and gusanders are also a problem. I am certainly not an expert in those matters, but I would be interested to know the minister's view on the predators and whether research was being done into the area, particularly in cormorant numbers, which I thought was very interesting and notable. I note that the rivers in my own patch, the issue of predators and bird numbers, has also arisen. It was a point that was made by the chairman of the Nith River Board last year. Angling tourism is also extremely important in south-west Scotland, so I want to say a few things about the rivers there. Although we are talking about salmon today, I want to point out that the River Annan is considered to be the best river in Scotland for Big But Brown Trout, and it is certainly worth a visit for that reason. In terms of the Nith, it is doing a number of very important things, putting in the precautionary principle in place that the Government encourages in terms of the conservation of salmon. It too has seen numbers decline and it has promoted catch and release. It maximised natural stock production by improving habitat, authorising and stocking fry where appropriate. The Nith conducts electrofishing as part of the Scottish Government's national programme. It is absolutely vital to provide data. Members and the minister will be aware that, in many rivers in Scotland, we simply do not have enough data on the numbers and the behaviour of fish. That is really important when we are classifying rivers in ways that have an impact on angling. It has been noted by Claudia Beamish and others that, certainly, angling communities felt aggrieved when the rivers were classified on the basis of not very much information at all, so I very much welcome any increase in data gathering. I note previously that— I am sorry, can you conclude? You are almost a minute over. I also note that the Government has commissioned research on the mortality rate of catch and release and I very much look forward to hearing that when it is completed. Thank you very much. I thank my colleague Rachel Hamilton for bringing this important debate to the chamber today. A cultural icon is an artifact that is identified by members of a culture as represented of that culture. Icons are judged by the extent to which they can be seen as an authentic proxy of that culture. Our wild salmon fit absolutely with that description, as do our rivers, up there with golden eagles, ospreys and the Scottish wild cat. Many of the recognised iconic salmon rivers are in the east, but rivers like the Bladnawch, Cree, Rd, Nith and Annan in my constituency are hugely important to contributing to the royal economy of the communities around them. Undoubtedly, greater protection and enhancement of stocks will help to maximise the socio-economic benefits that flow from them. Salmon is a protected species under the EU Habitats Directive, and yet we know that salmon continues to face many pressures in the marine and freshwater environment. Annual rod catches generally increased over the period 1952 to 2010, but declining in subsequent years until 2014, the second-lowest on record. The reported rod catches recovered slightly in 2015 and 2016, only to fall again in 2017. This is worrying, given that the proportion of the rod catch accounted for by catch and release has generally increased since 1994. However, in 2017, 90 per cent of the annual rod catch was released compared to less than 8 per cent in 1994. However, how much that was down to external factors other than fish numbers? For example, fishing effort reporting is critical for this to be robust information. However, the most important question is what are the causes of salmon decline? Atlantic salmon faces a number of pressures during their life cycle. Those include but are not limited to predation, poor water quality, disease and parasites, barriers to migration, poor physical habitat quality and food availability, and factors affecting survival issues while it sees including the challenges of climate change and associated warming seas. The committee recently published a report on farmed salmon and highlighted the potential issues that commercial farms may bring to the wild salmon population, including the impact of disease, parasites and sea lice. However, I am confident that the report will result in the impact of such farms greatly being reduced over the coming years. There is also an emerging evidence that predation by cormorants and cusanders may be more important than previously thought and at least some rivers. An evidence that the size and condition of smalts leaving the river may have an impact on their subsequent survival. Locally, we have fantastic volunteer groups on my rivers, such as the Nith District Salmon Fisheries Board, the Cree District Salmon Board and the Gallowee Fisheries Trust, working to improve water quality and removing barriers to migration, but also promoting responsible angling. I would like to take this opportunity to invite the minister to visit the Cree to see for herself. So much good work in research has been done on our rivers, but there is also broad consensus that the main problem occurs at sea and neighbouring onshore environments. In the marine environment, there have been huge shifts in the distribution of plankton linked to sea surface temperatures, and such ecosystem shifts are likely to have a significant impact on salmon. The International Council for the Exploration of Seas is doing work to look at the by-catch in commercial fisheries with a developing theory that mackerel and herring stocks in North Atlantic have been significantly underestimated by. The salmon is suffering from computation in those areas. We need to look urgently into evidence that suggests that not only Scottish salmon stocks but also seabirds, depending on plankton and small fishes, are plumeting. Both salmon and seabirds are directly competitors with mackerel. We need to ask the question of North East Atlantic mackerel stocks being allowed to develop to a point where there is a serious threat to both salmon and seabirds competing for the same food. A fully integrated scientific study to find out what is happening to the wild salmon in their journey down the river systems and out to our seas is indeed needed. Only then can we evidence be based on recommendations and inform policy to enable proper management solutions. The Atlantic salmon trust has launched the missing salmon project. I am sorry, can you launch on to something else now? You have to wind down and conclude. I certainly will, Deputy Presiding Officer. In a period of just 40 years, wild Atlantic salmon numbers around the world have more than half. The total population has fallen from £8 million to £10 million in the early 1970s to £34 million today. Nobody knows where this mortality is happening, but I urge the Government to take action now. I am telling you, that is not winding down in my book. Thank you very much and sit down. Can I just say to the chamber and view the number of members remaining to speak in today's debate are minded to accept a motion under rule 8.14.3 to extend the debate but up to 30 minutes? Can acts Rachel Hamilton move such a motion? Are members in agreement? No members having disagreed, I either have to extend this debate under that standing order and I now call Mark Ruskell to be followed by Neil Findlay. Mark Ruskell. Right, thank you Deputy Presiding Officer. Can I join members in thanking Rachel Hamilton for bringing forward this debate? I have already learned a lot more about the salmon in the last half an hour than I previously knew. Unfortunately, I cannot declare an interest today as a salmon angler, but I will declare an interest to somebody who lives just a few feet from the river teeth, one of Scotland's most iconic salmon rivers flowing into the fourth. I have never fished in it, I have occasionally swam in it, but Living Exeter River does help me to understand a little about how the pressures of climate change are affecting the health of our rivers and protected species like the salmon and also the lamprey, which is protected through a special area of conservation on the river teeth. Now it's clear that our rivers face major challenges as water temperatures rise, while water levels reduce and dramatic weather events become more frequent. A couple of years ago, I saw levels on the teeth dropped to the lowest for decades on what is the fastest flowing river in Scotland. Vast areas have exposed bedrock and isolated pools of increasingly warming water, linked by tiny streams that are getting narrower day by day by day. Weather events like this are going to increase, putting huge strain on salmon and other species that require a cooler environment and good water flow to breed and to succeed. We do need catchment-wide approaches to tackling this. For example, joining up landowners to provide better riparian environments through tree planting, Claudia Beamish has already alluded to that, that can really help to reduce the water temperatures in the rivers. A number of members have already mentioned the success in the tweed. The tweed management has shown what is possible with a strong catchment-wide approach, not just on salmon management but on other issues as well, such as tackling the scourge of non-native invasive species. We need to see ways to join up that approach more in other areas too. Scotland's Fisheries Trust is in a position to be able to co-ordinate a lot of the action that is needed to restore the environment in our catchments, but too often they have been excluded from funding such as the Scottish Rural Development Funds to provide that role. It is important that we can take that catchment approach because preventative action will always be cheaper in the long run. We have to ensure that the right incentives are there to take that action in a way that joins interests together in protecting our river catchments. It is precisely because of the pressures of climate change and a number of the other issues that members have raised in this debate that we need to take a far more precautionary approach to the siting of salmon farms. I make the call again that a moratorium must be put in place on expansions until we have the right system in place to manage the impacts of the industry on wild salmon populations. If I could turn from the east to the west coast where bad decisions are still being made to allow vast expansions of salmon farms, our Garland Pute Council, for example, has just allowed a huge increase in biomass production from three farms in Loughfine, despite major concerns about the impact on sea-lice levels in wild fish. The company in question has produced environmental management plan, which is vague and lacked proper consultation, and there are also major questions about how that plan could ever be enforced by the council, who have neither the resource nor the expertise to do so. Despite the central recommendation of this Parliament's report on salmon farming that the status quo is not an option, planning permissions are still being granted for expansion of farms in the wrong places that have performed badly in the past. That is happening. Whatever stakeholders such as Salmon and Trout Conservation Scotland or the Fisheries Management Scotland or district sound fisheries boards and communities themselves say, and even where the track record of sea-lice control on farms is very poor, as it has been in Loughfine. To conclude, that must change if we are to see one of Scotland's most iconic and legally protected species start to recover. To fail to act at a point where the salmon faces huge environmental pressures would be nothing short of a dereliction of duty. Thank you very much. I call Neil Findlay, followed by Jamie Greene, and Mr Greene will be the last speaker in the open debate. Mr Findlay. I declare an interest as a keen fisherman with a season ticket on the tweed, and I'll soon purchase them on the tape and the clade as well. I'm a trout fisherman. I could also apologise that I have to leave after a speak for another engagement. I didn't intend speaking in this debate, but when I saw it on the paper today, I took my opportunity. I want to raise one particular issue, and that is the continuation of protection orders on many of the major waters across Scotland. Many of those have been in existence for decades, since indeed prior to the formation of this Parliament. 14 are in force on major water systems such as the clade, the tweed, the erm, the tae, the tumble, the spay and other major water courses. They were supposed to be in force to protect fish stocks and access to fishing, but the reality is that I remember at the time when they came on that many trout anglers believed that the reason that they were introduced was to keep trout anglers off some of those major river systems and to leave them free for some of the more exclusive salmon syndicates. I don't want to be in a position where we divide fish among the greatest conservationists that there are, but the reality is that at that time there was that division between trout anglers and salmon anglers. As a conservation measure in order to protect stocks, as the example given in Rachael Hamilton's motion shows, it has been an abject failure because we have seen in the motion 23,000 salmon caught in 2012 to six and a half thousand in 2017. All of that time, protection order has been in place on the tweed, so it has to be something else. Something else is at play, whether that is climate change, whether that is the impact of salmon farming, whether that is—I have seen it when I use gusanders and cormorants. I don't know what it is, but there is something else at play and it ain't fishermen that are causing the problem. That is one thing for sure. If I look at a river that I fished all my teenage years later, the River of Ireland, I see the tragic decline of what was a fantastic river with abundant salmon and sea trout stocks. That decline has been in place since the protection order came on, so there definitely is something else in place. I have, through parliamentary questions, been pursuing the Scottish Government on the continuation of protection orders. They are on and there is no end date in place, none. I have asked the Government to carry out an analysis of them to tell us whether, as a conservation management system, they are working. There is no plan to carry out any scientific analysis of whether those are successful conservation methods. We are supposed to be in an era of evidence-based policy and no other area of policy would we provide no evidence and just continue on as we are doing when it is fairly obvious that it is failing. Therefore, I would ask the minister and I will look at the official report for her reply since I won't be here, as to what the Government is going to do to provide scientific evidence to justify the continuation of protection orders on those waters across Scotland. Just to say that we will not do anything and watch the decline is not acceptable. I hope that the minister will take a much more proactive stance than the cabinet secretary has. The irony of the cabinet secretary's position on that is that Ms Cunningham in the 80s and 90s was a young radical lawyer who represented members of the campaign for public angling when they fished illegally on the Queen's beat on the D and on the River Tay and people were arrested. She defended those people rightly, in my opinion, who were deemed to be fishing illegally. Now she is the cabinet secretary responsible for continuing the system that she once railed against. I would ask the minister in her position and I respect the minister greatly to take a strong interest in that and to look into the system of protection orders to see whether there is a justification and whether there is a conservation policy that is working or not. I thank Neil Findlay for his remarks. I know that he has to head off, but I think that that has been a very interesting contribution and I assure his sentiment. I also should declare an interest that I, too, am a keen angler. I am a member of a number of angling clubs, including the Perth and District Angles Association and the Stormant Angling Club. You will often find me incognito, dressed in waders in a balaclava. I will leave that image with members to ponda. I am also, more importantly, a member of this Parliament's rural economy committee, and as such, with fellow members co-offered the inquiry into the aquaculture industry that we have heard so much of today. I was not scheduled to speak in this debate, but, like Mr Findlay, I take a keen interest in it. It is a hobby, a sport that is an industry, and it is part of our rural economy. It provides me, like so many others, much-needed escapism, no least from politics on occasion. However, I have also learned this past year that it is a valuable and indeed invaluable industry in Scotland. Let me talk some what about the industry itself and the people that it employs, but specifically the gillies. They are a strange breed, I have to say. I have come across many over the past year since I took up angling. They are truly wonderful in the fabric of Scotland. They represent that link of the days of old and the days of new, the link between breaches and tweed and goatechs and graphite. They can be grumpy, they can be fun, they can be knowledgeable, they are the keepers of our rivers, the protectors of our wildlife, they are the teachers of our young, the advocates of our countryside, the managers of our riverbanks, the guides for our tourists, and usually the owners of a kettle on a cold February morning. Most importantly, they are the eyes and ears of our rivers and we must listen to them. Fish numbers are so low across Scottish rivers that this is a dying tradition. This could be the last generation of angling, the last generation of gillies. I sincerely hope that that is not the case, but last week just 38 salmon were caught on the tweed, 38 in a whole week. I suspect that there are baits on the tweed where they would catch that in a day in the good years, where you used to have to wait for dead man's shoes and a waiting list for a week on a prestigious fishing beat. You can now book a day rod on your mobile phone using an app, such as demand drop. You could argue that that has opened up the sport to make it more affordable and accessible. Yes, that is the case, but how do you attract new entrants when there is simply no fish to catch? How many did you catch last season, we say, in the lunchtime break? Two or three is the usual answer. What, per day? No, the whole year. It is a difficult industry, but we need to tackle some of the challenges that it faces. There is no simple solution to this, but I think that the first of all is the perception, the perception of what salmon fishing is. Most of the anglies that I meet are retired, they are local, they are friendly, they are happy to impart their advice and knowledge, sometimes too willing to impart that knowledge, but it is them who love their rivers and who manage them the most. This is not a sport for the rich. Yes, it is if you go to Iceland or Russia, it is a 10 grand trip, but for many it is a £30 a day out. We have had well rehearsed debates about salmon farming and the effect that this has had on some areas, but on the east coast they will say that this is not the only problem. We do not know why there are such huge reductions in salmon and perhaps therein lies the problem. Not enough scientific research has gone into this. Predation certainly is an issue. I have seen, like Mr Findlay, Cormorants and Goose Anders feeding on fish. I have seen seals so far up the river, I wonder what on earth they are doing there. Why are they feeding there? Why are salmon going further out to sea and heading in different directions? Where are their feed heading? Why are the riverbeds changing? Why have we not dealt with the damage that floods and storms in years in some rivers of lack of management or under-investment has achieved? Why have we not righted the wrongs of the industrial area on our rivers? We as policy makers in closing need to have a frank discussion about some of those areas. Catch and release is the main one, but we need to have a conversation at some point about Sunday fishing. Tradition is one thing, but we are on the brink of having no industry at all. We need to have a healthy and open debate. Change is often unwelcome, but perhaps it is inevitable. In closing, let me thank Rachael Hamilton for this debate. I remain positive, but if action is not taken, then I am afraid that the only thing that we will be fishing for in the future is sympathy. Thank you very much. I call on Mary Gougeon to close the Government Minister. Please, approximately seven minutes. I really want to begin today by thanking Rachael Hamilton for bringing this vitally important issue to the chamber. It is a bit of a shame that we have had a lot of speakers who do not have more people in the chamber to hear it. As Mark Ruskell said, he learned more in the past half hour than he has in the past while about salmon. It is one thing that I have found absolutely fascinating. I do not have direct portfolio responsibility for it, but it is an issue that I have been involved in. It is absolutely fascinating. Michelle Ballantyne, and a few others, touched on a vitally important point today about the fact that salmon is a keystone species. It is about what the decline numbers mean for our wider biodiversity. As Claudia Beamish stated in her speech, it indicates the health of our rivers and our ecosystems. While that might be considered a rural issue—again, we do not have that many people in the chamber today—it is so vitally important as to what that means for our wider ecosystems and for biodiversity. I thank the minister for giving way, and I refer members to my register of interests. One of the most important threats to salmon and species in rivers is the invasion of non-native and native species outwith their ecosystem. Will the minister give the chamber today an undertaking that this Government will work proactively to control species such as rununculus in rivers where they are choking the very fish that she is talking about today? I would be happy to look at that. That was also going to be a point that I was going to come back to that Mark Ruskell raised later on in my contribution. Obviously, salmon is one of Scotland's most iconic species. Sadly, as we have heard today, fewer and fewer of the fish that leave our rivers for the ocean are returning. The international council for the exploration of the sea estimates that around 1.25 million salmon return to Scottish waters each year in the 1960s, but by the end of 2016, as we heard from Joan McAlpine, the figure was down to just 600,000. That pattern is replicated right across the North Atlantic, with Isis estimating the overall numbers, which were previously around 8 million to 10 million in the 1980s, now down to just 3 million. Numbers are in decline. Again, as we have heard today, there are a whole variety of reasons for that. In Scotland, we have worked with the Fisheries Management Scotland and its member district salmon fishery boards and trusts to identify the 12 high-level pressures on salmon, some of which Rachel Hamilton, Finlay Carson and others outlined today. We have published a list of those pressures online, and today I want to outline some of those and the key activities that we are currently undertaking to try to mitigate against some of those. One such pressure is from exploitation through angling and netting in our rivers and around the coasts. Over the past few years, we have introduced a range of new measures to help conserve and protect salmon in rivers. Changes to the annual closed times on most rivers, for example, extended the period during which it is illegal to fish for salmon or to keep those that you have caught. Annual salmon conservation regulations set out the results of our annual assessment of stocks and detailed those rivers where anglers must practice catch and release fishing. Would the minister agree that, given the recent evidence at the Ecclare Committee, angling effort could potentially be insignificant compared to other pressures on salmon fishing? I think that we have to consider all the measures. As I understand it, that was just the point that I was waiting to come on to, the discussion that took place at the Environment Committee. I believe that the 2019 regulations were considered and passed on 12 March. I believe that Claudia Beamish had noted the significant improvements in the assessment approach this year, but we have to consider all those in the round and make sure that we do the research into each of the individual pressures, too. We are continuing to develop and improve on our annual adult assessment. Last year, we introduced a Scotland-wide assessment of juvenile stocks, which we hope will complement and improve the existing science. Angling is just one part of the picture, because research in this area is vitally important, as I have just stated. Last March, we announced a package of £500,000 to be invested across a range of research and practical projects that are helping us to examine and address the wider pressures on salmon. On predation, for example, we are working with the sea mammal research unit to analyse the behaviour and movement of seals in the river D. Later this year, Marine Scotland will publish the results of research carried out with the Ness district salmon fishery board and Aberdeen University to identify the impact of dolphin predation on returning adult salmon in the Moray Firth. I am happy to confirm to Joan McAlpine that we have recently commissioned new research to analyse the feeding habits of fish predating birds to identify where and when they are feeding and what they are eating, and that is a point again that has been raised and a concern raised by others throughout the debate today. I know that the impact of such birds has been of concern to Rachael Hamilton in particular in the past and to many anglers and fisheries managers. On barriers, SEPA is working with local authorities, landowners, fishery trusts and conservation bodies to deliver an annual programme of projects to remove and ease barriers to migrating fish. There is a recent example of this from West Lothian, where, since January of this year, water is now flowing down a new bypass channel around the redundant rugby club weir. This is the third of seven weirs being tackled by 2021 to restore fish access into the river almond catchment. The project is opening up around 200km of river network to native fish, including salmon, for the first time in generations. That also creates new opportunities for angling tourism and recreation. I recently visited the S district salmon fishery board in Bereken to hear about some of the work that they do, and they took me to the site of the Pau Burn project, which was essentially about their working together with SEPA and changing the morphology of the Pau Burn and really looking at the impact that that had made where they would actually start to see trout return to that part of the river where there hadn't been any for a number of years. They also explained to me and I heard about their work in relation to catchment-wide approaches that Mark Ruskell mentioned, because that is so vitally important, where they talked about the tree planting that was happening further up the glens and also the work that was happening around the S rivers in relation to invasive non-native species. On habitat improvement, fishery boards are working with SEPA to address acidification and reduce diffuse pollution. Scottish Water is working to improve abstraction regimes in nine zones to ensure that sufficient water is remaining in our rivers and locks during periods of low rainfall. However, there are also pressures associated with our salmon farming industry, and I realised that that was another point raised by a number of members today and the concerns around that. We have responded to the recent Wreck Committee report on salmon farming and identified links to many of our current initiatives, including the Farmed Fish health framework, the interactions working group and SEPA's sector plan. During the report debate on 6 February, there was broad cross-chamber support for the sector, but with an emphasis that progress has to be made on the known issues. We agree with that and have acknowledged that salmon farming must be developed sustainably with appropriate improvements that help to minimise and address environmental impacts. However, those pressures do not just affect salmon in our rivers. As the ISIS figures show, the issues go much wider, and the loss of so many fish in the marine environment is also of great concern. That is why it is so important that we also work with partners across the world. Marine Scotland is taking part in sea sailor, a research programme conducted by an expert international consortium that is examining the factors that impact the variation in marine survival of Atlantic salmon over time and in different geographical areas. More widely, this is the international year of the salmon, an initiative being led by the North Atlantic Salmon Conservation Organisation and the North Pacific and Adremus Fish Commission. Michelle Ballantyne also had a motion relating to that. I did not realise at the time that she was also the species champion for the salmon, but I would say that there was a lot in her motion that we agreed with. The international year of the salmon aims to raise awareness and understanding of the social and economic benefits that salmon provides and to highlight the many issues that are facing salmon around the world. Roseanna Cunningham launched the Scottish component of that last October, when she met the presidents of both NASCO and the commission in Perth. Officials from Marine Scotland were among a range of international speakers contributing to last Friday's annual meeting of Fisheries Management Scotland. There are just a couple of points that I want to make before we close, Presiding Officer. I realise that I have probably gone way over time, but I just want to say that I absolutely recognise the importance of angling to the Scottish economy, which is again outlined by many members today. There were a number of points that I wanted to raise. Claudia Beamish raised the point of regulation in a joined up approach. Certainly consider that, where we do that. I think that it works in the most effective way to work. Finlay Carson's invite is more than happy to accept that and to discuss some of the issues that you raised further. Neil Findlay raised particular points that he wanted us to address, and again I am happy to look at that too. I realise that there are a number of pressures as we have identified today, but we are undertaking the research to try to mitigate those as best as we can, and we need to work together so that we are able to do that. We do not end up in the situation that Jamie Greene outlined in the fairs, where angling becomes a thing of the past. We certainly do not want to see that happen. My efforts to curtail things are in vain, frankly. I thank all members for a very interesting and informed debate. Yes, I wish more people had heard it. It was extremely interesting. Thank you very much. I conclude the debate. Nice to spend this meeting of Parliament until 2.30.