Scottish salmon and sea trout fishery statistics 2023

Glossary

1SW: One sea-winter salmon.

Farmed salmon: Atlantic salmon reported as farmed origin when caught.

Finnock: (also known as whitling or herling) are sea trout which have spent less than a year at sea and are making their first return to fresh water. Finnock have been reported since 2004 and are not included in the sea trout figures.

Method: Fishing method (rod, net and coble, fixed engine). Descriptions are available in Collecting the Marine Scotland salmon and sea trout fishery statistics - gov.scot (www.gov.scot).

MSW: Multi sea-winter salmon.

Multi sea-winter salmon: Atlantic salmon which have spent more than one winter at sea before returning to fresh water.

Netting effort: Summarised median number of crews for the net and coble fishery, and summarised median number of traps for the fixed engine fishery. Effort for the haaf net fishery in the Solway Firth are not included.

One sea-winter salmon: Atlantic salmon which have spent one winter at sea before returning to fresh water, also known as grilse.

Previous five-year average: The mean of the five years previous to the most recently published season (that is, for the 2023 season publication, the previous five-year average is the mean of seasons 2018 to 2022). The previous five-year average contains two years which were impacted be the restrictions in place during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Released: Fish which were caught, by any method, and released back into the water.

Retained: Fish which were caught, by any method, and not released back into the water.

Salmon: Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar).

Sea trout: Anadromous form of brown trout (Salmo trutta). They spend some time in the sea and migrate up rivers to spawn. The categories used to report sea trout data have varied throughout the time series and are detailed in Collecting the Marine Scotland salmon and sea trout fishery statistics - gov.scot (www.gov.scot).

Spring MSW: Multi sea-winter salmon caught before 1 May.

Summer/autumn MSW + 1SW: Sum of multi sea-winter salmon caught after 30 April and one sea-winter salmon caught at any time during the season.

Wild salmon: Atlantic salmon reported as wild origin when caught.