What are District Salmon Fishery Boards?

Salmon Fishery Districts

For the purpose of salmon fishery management, Scotland is divided into 54 statutory salmon fishery districts. The districts comprise of the natural catchment areas of a specific river or group of rivers (see map below). There are currently District Salmon Fishery Boards (DSFBs) constituted for 42 of these districts. The following numbered districts do not presently have a fishery board - 1, 2, 6, 36, 37, 41, 44, 45, 46, 47, 49 and 50. In recent years, progressive moves have been made to amalgamate smaller districts to create larger, more coherent single districts for the purpose of creating a single DSFB, and this process is still ongoing.

District Salmon Fishery Boards - Brief History

Although DSFBs have their origin in the salmon fisheries acts introduced in the mid 1800s, their constitution was changed in 1986 and was provided in the 1986 Salmon Act [now consolidated into the Salmon & Freshwater Fisheries (Consolidation) (Scotland) Act 2003]. Salmon fisheries in Scotland are privately owned and, in Scotland, the cost of the local administration, protection and improvement of the fisheries is financed by those owners (unlike England, there is no subsidy from the Government). The district boards finance their work by levying a rate, often a substantial rate, on the salmon fishery owners in the district. Elected representatives of those owners provide the core of the membership of a Board. However, since 1986, the boards are required also to include representatives of salmon anglers and salmon netsmen in the district. The Government made a further revision to the constitution of the Boards in 1999 to allow for even wider representation on the boards by bodies like SEPA and SNH or others, such as local angling clubs and associations. This had been recommended in the Report of the Salmon Strategy Task Force (1997). The intention of this was to ensure that the legislation governing membership of DSFBs is more flexible, so that there was no restrictive limit on the number of members.

The effect of this has been to ease the merger of smaller districts and their DSFBs where appropriate, and also to allow the input of further interests onto DSFBs, such as those described above.

Powers and duties

The powers and duties of a DSFB are summarised below:

Powers

• to act, undertake works and incur expenses for the protection and improvement of the fisheries within their districts, for the increase of salmon and sea-trout and the stocking of the district with these fish.
• to impose financial assessments on each salmon fishery in the district, and to charge interest on arrears.
• to borrow funds, and to incur a wide range of expenditure in furtherance of their powers and duties.
• to appoint bailiffs to enforce the salmon fisheries legislation.
• exempt persons from certain provisions of the law for scientific or other purposes.
• to sue in the name of the clerk.

Duties

• to appoint a clerk
• to maintain a list of proprietors within the DSFBs district
• to produce an annual report and audited accounts and to consider these at an AGM
• to call a triennial electoral meeting

Regulation of fisheries

Boards have no ability to make legal restrictions on fishing of their own accord. Instead, they must ask Ministers to make regulatory measures for their district, if the Board deems it appropriate. Until recently, Boards were limited by statute to asking for local regulations to prohibit the use of certain baits or lures or for orders to alter the annual close time for fishing. Under other legislation, national regulations have been made by Government for example, concerning the use of netting twines in salmon fishing, the free passage of salmon in rivers and the weekly close time for salmon fishing. With the passing of the Salmon Conservation (Scotland) Act 2001, [now consolidated into the Salmon and Freshwater Fisheries (Consolidation) (Scotland) Act 2003], Boards can now make applications to Ministers for a greater range of statutory measures to allow them to manage and conserve more effectively the fish and fisheries in their district. For the first time, it would also give Ministers powers to make regulations of their own initiative to conserve salmon.

Catch & Release of salmon is an important and widely used tool to assist salmon management. Image courtesy of Fisheries Research Services (FRS).

Research

A number of the bigger Boards now employ their own research staff and have extensive and well monitored programmes of work in progress. These programmes might include: stock restoration through the operation of hatcheries; riparian habitat enhancement schemes and collaborative projects with organisations and businesses operating in the catchment whose activities might have an impact on fisheries such as forestry, agriculture or hydro electric power generation. Strong relationships are being developed with the fishery trusts, who play a key role in scientific monitoring of fish populations and education. RAFTS is the representative body for all Trusts in Scotland see http://www.rafts.org.uk/