Salmon stocks in England and Wales are exploited in a number of fisheries other than those operating under the jurisdiction of the Environment Agency within national waters. These include the distant water fisheries at Faroes and West Greenland, and other fisheries such as those operating off Ireland and in homewaters in other parts of the UK. Tagging studies have provided information on the levels of exploitation for English and Welsh stocks in many of these fisheries and this is summarised briefly below:
West Greenland
This fishery exploits only salmon that would have returned to Europe and North America as MSW fish. Prior to recent negotiated reductions in the quota for this fishery, the exploitation rates on the MSW component of English and Welsh stocks was estimated to be in the region of 10 to 20% (Russell and Potter, 1996). However, following significant quota reductions since the late 1980s and the buy-out in 1993-94, exploitation of MSW fish is believed to have fallen to very low levels. In 2001 and 2002 increased quotas were agreed based on three distinct periods, with the continuation of the fishery in later periods dependent on sufficiently high CPUE in previous ones. This resulted in a quota of 114 t in 2001, although the total catch recorded was only 34.5 t. An additional 8 t of ‘private sales’ were also reported. In 2002, a privately-funded buy-out was negotiated and a subsistence only fishery operated. It is expected that this catch will be relatively small (<10 t). A summary of the recent regulatory measures for the West Greenland fishery is given in Annex 1.
Faroes
The Faroes fishery exploits both grilse and MSW salmon of largely northern European origin. Prior to the recent buy-out arrangements, few tags of English and Welsh origin were recovered in this fishery and estimated exploitation rates on English and Welsh stocks were very low (~1%) (Russell and Potter, 1996). Between 1991 and 1998, the Faroes salmon quota was bought out with NASF funds, and only a small research fishery was operated, taking up to 23 t per year. No buy-out was arranged for 1999 or 2000. Although no fishing took place in 1999, a single vessel carried out commercial fishing in 2000 and a catch of 8 t was reported. There were no reported landings in 2001 and this is also expected to apply for 2002.