Conservation of Atlantic salmon - gene banking: principles and considerations

Introduction

The Atlantic salmon is a cultural and conservation icon. It has been the subject of commercial net and recreational sport fisheries in many countries around the North Atlantic Ocean basin. Salmon populations have suffered pressures due to anthropogenic activities, such as pollution, abstraction of water and obstruction to migration within the rivers. Even though conditions in many rivers have been improved, further significant declines have been reported throughout the species’ range (Friedland et al. 2009, Chaput 2012, Tirronen et al. 2022, ICES 2023) and those declines have been attributed in large part to changes in marine conditions (Chaput 2012, Olmos et al. 2019). Whilst many of the river pressures can be addressed, negating the impact of marine pressures is a much more difficult undertaking. As such, there is now a focus on conservation efforts, and interest in gene banking because of its potential to preserve genetic material for subsequent stock restoration or recovery. This report focuses on the principles, procedures, potential opportunities and risks of gene banking of salmon populations.