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Salmon: Conservation

Asked by Anna GelderdLabourDepartment for Environment, Food and Rural AffairsTabled Answered 5 September 2025UIN 72914

The question

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will (a) advocate for improved international protections for salmon through the North Atlantic Salmon Conservation Organisation and (b) support local hatcheries to aid salmon population recovery.

Answered by Daniel Zeichner

The UK is a committed member of the North Atlantic Salmon Conservation Organisation (NASCO), which seeks to reverse the decline of wild Atlantic salmon and recover populations to healthy and resilient levels across their range. The UK hosted NASCO’s 2025 annual meeting in Cardiff, earlier this year, at which parties agreed to develop ambitious new salmon action plans to contribute to the recovery of salmon populations. In the first half of 2026 NASCO will host negotiations to develop a new regulatory measure for the West Greenland land fishery, which the UK will participate in. In 2024 NASCO published new guidelines for stocking Atlantic salmon. In England, all stocking activity is regulated by the Environment Agency, who take a case-by-case approach, with reference to the NASCO guidelines.

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