Senedd Species Champions Focus on Wild Fish Crisis in our Rivers and Seas

Senedd Members Huw Irranca-Davies and Cefin Campbell have issued a call to action to save two of Wales most iconic species – our wild Salmon and Sewin (or Sea Trout as it is also known) – and other wild fish from a looming extinction crisis. They will host an expert-led discussion on the 18th October at the Pierhead Building in Cardiff Bay, to highlight the severity of this crisis and identify ways we can save our wild fish populations.

SALMON and sea trout in Wales are now at their lowest levels since records began. Salmon populations on 91 per cent of rivers in Wales are now classed as being ‘At Risk’ and the remaining 9 per cent ‘Probably at Risk’. Across England and Wales, the populations of wild salmon in the rivers of are reaching crisis point, according to the Environment Agency. But this is also an international crisis demanding action from many countries in a joined-up way.

In a joint statement, Huw Irranca-Davies MS and Cefin Campbell MS (who are Senedd Species Champions for the Salmon and Sewin respectively) said “The critical decline of Sewin and Salmon here in Wales and beyond our borders show that things are going badly wrong in our rivers and our seas, in the spawning grounds and migration routes. There are many factors including climate change, overfishing, and freshwater habitat destruction which are pushing wild fish to the limits of sustainability and beyond, so we need urgent action here in Wales and also internationally to reverse this race towards extinction”.