The population of Irish salmon has dropped by a “drastic” 90% over the past five decades. 

The salmon is an iconic and revered animal in Irish culture - featuring in many ancient myths and legends - but it is now endangered.

Back in 1975, scientists recorded 1.7 million salmon returning to Ireland on their annual migration but in 2022 the figure had plummeted to just 171,000.

In the words of Inland Fisheries Ireland deputy chief executive Dr Cathal Gallagher, it is a “pretty drastic decline.”

“We have about 140 plus salmon rivers in Ireland,” he told The Pat Kenny Show.

“Each of the salmon populations in those rivers are genetically isolated; the individual rivers themselves are up and down.

“For a long number of years, we have about 60 rivers that were closed - so, there’s no exploitation of salmon - and 39 rivers have only catch and release angling.

“Some of the rivers are in reasonable condition, so 42 rivers last year had some surplus that could be used by anglers or commercial fishermen.

“So, it’s an up and down picture around the country depending on which catchment you’re in.”

Two fishermen on boat fishing for wild salmon in Ireland.

Irish salmon

Every year, salmon spawn in Ireland’s rivers between November and March.

Eventually, the offspring migrate from Ireland to the rich feeding grounds of the Atlantic Ocean.

The problem is fewer and fewer return every year.

“If we look back at the 80s and 70s, for every 100 young juveniles that went out on migration out to the Norwegian Sea or out off the coast of Greenland to feed, we were getting 20 adults back,” Dr Gallagher said.

“In recent years, that has dropped now to only five returning as adults.

“So, something is happening in the ocean and the consensus is this is related to climate change.

“It might be as simple as the temperature changing; it could be the impact of climate on the predators that are feeding on salmon or the food itself that salmon feed on in the oceans.

“There’s some evidence the calorific value of their food sources have dropped.”

Man made barriers

Other issues include human infrastructure that might be helpful to people, but for a salmon can be a matter of life or death.

It is a problem the Inland Fisheries Ireland is trying to mitigate.

“That issue of barriers is going to be dealt with a barrier mitigation programme,” he said.

“What I advise doing is identifying potentially 73,000 barriers on a national level - many of which would impact the migration of salmon.

“It could be very small; aprons for example under bridges that were built… or those weirs across a river that maybe were associated with a mill in historic times.”

According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, there are at least 10,967 animal species worldwide that are threatened with extinction due to climate change.

Main image: An Atlantic salmon. Picture by: Alamy.com