“If we cannot save the Spey salmon, what chance do you think any other river has in the whole of Scotland?” asks Feargal Sharkey today in Boat of Garten.
The Northern Irish musician may be best known as the frontman of the Undertones, but in recent years he’s been singing a different tune as one of the nation’s foremost environment campaigners.
Today he’s visiting Boat of Garten by the River Spey, to help launch a major new campaign to protect the internationally famous waterway… and the Atlantic salmon that depend on all 107 miles of it.
Why is Feargal Sharkey in the Highlands?
“Since I was about 10 or 11 years old, I’ve spent far too much of my time standing around in the middle of rivers like the Spey, beating them into a foam in a futile attempt to persuade a salmon to hang on to the end of my line,” says Feargal.
As a lifelong lover of fly fishing, the 64-year-old has a genuine passion for rivers and the ecosystems, and economies, that rely on their good health.
This lunchtime he was keynote speaker at the official launch of the Spey Catchment Initiative as a newly-established Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation (SCIO).
This big step forward for the organisation, which represents all sorts of groups with an interest in the Spey, is aimed at turning around the fortunes of the iconic Atlantic salmon.
The species is in major decline, and wild populations have reduced by about 70% in the past 25 years.
On the Spey alone, catches have gone down by about 50% in the past decade, and the Spey is one of the better rivers for the threatened fish.
“The reason I wanted to come today is to celebrate the extraordinary thing that is the River Spey, and the even more extraordinary thing that is the Scottish salmon,” says Feargal.
“But also, to bring a massive word of caution.
“In the recent Wild Isles series, the great authority Sir David Attenborough made it very clear: The Atlantic salmon could have just 20 years left, and it’s all our fault.
“Just 3% of all the smolts that leave this river return to breed.
“That’s why we’ve only got 20 years left, because it’s just utterly unsustainable.”
Feargal’s alarming encounter with an American fishing tourist
“This morning at the hotel, I was sitting having breakfast and got talking to this couple about salmon and fishing.
“This woman had come from San Diego, the other side of the world, to fish the River Spey, such is the globally-recognised, extraordinary thing that the Spey and the Spey salmon are.
“She said Scotland is absolutely marvellous, she loved the local people, the ghillies were brilliant, but she’s going home… despondent.
“Because she never saw a salmon.
“She came all the way across the world to fish here, but she didn’t see a single salmon and she made it very clear to me she’s not coming back.
“So that’s where we are now. People want to visit here to see one of the most iconic salmon rivers on the planet and they’re going home disappointed.
“If that’s not a big warning sign for the people of Scotland, then I don’t know what it is.
“So for me, the fight back for saving the Atlantic salmon in Scotland starts here, today.”
Project should comb ‘every inch’ of the Spey, from the Moray Firth to the Cairngorms says singer
Feargal says that the decline of Atlantic salmon in our waterways has been a “death of a thousand cuts”.
Rising water temperatures, reduction of habitats, obstructions in rivers to their breeding grounds and pollution have all played their part in the population decline.
But it’s the fact that the species is facing threats from all sorts of angles that’s why Feargal says he’s so “intrigued” by the Spey Catchment Initiative, which is designed to bring all kinds of groups together for the common goal of protecting the river.
He says: “We need to get everybody with any kind of interest whatsoever in the River Spey around the table, whether that’s anglers, fishers, local communities, local politicians, anybody involved at all.
“And if we’re going to save these fish then it will mean an awful lot of people will need to start thinking very differently because let’s be honest, what we’ve been doing for the past 100 years hasn’t worked out.
“Some people may need to give up more than others, some people may need to sacrifice some things.
“Anglers may need to just face it and say, you know what, we need to stop catching fish for a bit, we may need to return every fish we catch.
“Landowners may need to say you know what, we’re going to have to plant more trees.
“Others could say you know what, we don’t need that dam anymore, I’m going to get rid of it.
“Right now, nothing should be off the agenda.
“I genuinely think if we really want to save these fish, you’re going to have to start at the mouth of the River Spey, go all the way up to the Cairngorms, and survey every single inch of it.
“If there’s any kind of impediments to the journey of these remarkable fish, we need to get in there and fix it.”
Could the Spey project become a ‘blueprint’ for every other salmon river in the UK?
Feargal says he made the trip to Boat of Garten after he was convinced of the benefits of the Spey Catchment Initiative by Roger Knight, director of the Spey Fishery Board and former Iraq weapons inspector with the UN.
Roger says: “We’re delighted to have Feargal here today because he’s a passionate fly fisherman.
“His reputation stems from the music industry but for the past few decades he’s become instrumental as a campaigner for cleaning up rivers around the UK.
“Our mission moving forwards is to make the Spey catchment, all 3,000 square kilometres of it (1158 sq miles), sustainable and resilient in the face of the climate and biodiversity emergencies facing us all.
“It’s a huge task, but we’re looking forward to taking it on.”
Feargal adds: “You need to get everybody in the room.
“Because no one individual or set of people can go and fix this problem, there’s too many parts at play.
“I think the Spey Catchment Initiative could become the blueprint for every single other river in the UK.
“If we cannot get this one right, and save the most iconic, precious salmon river in the whole of western Europe, if not the world…
“Then it’s game over, it’s done.”
Find out more about the Spey Catchment Initiative, and what volunteers, the business world, and everyone can do to support its aims of protecting the river’s precious salmon here.
And you can watch this video to see an example of their work so far:
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