BACKGROUND

The Atlantic salmon has been declining throughout its range and this is believed to be largely due to cyclical factors impacting on fish during their time at sea. There is little that can be done to directly influence these factors. However, it is possible to address some of the problems facing salmon during the freshwater phase of their lifecycle. It is these latter elements that the SAP concentrates upon, with actions falling into three main categories:

• Measures to increase the number of spawners by reducing legal and illegal exploitation (e.g. Byelaws)
• Mearures to improve environmental factors (water quality issues and sustainable land use)
• Measures to improve salmon production (in stream habitat improvements and accessibility).

The Ogmore catchments support a locally important salmon and sea trout (sewin) fishery. Sea trout are the predominant salmonid in the catchment, though important numbers of salmon are also present. Although this is a ‘salmon action plan’, many of the proposed actions will result in benefits for sea trout as well as salmon.
To help place the salmonid fishery into a National context; the 2001 reported salmon rod catch of 62 from the Ogmore ranked 14th out of 33 salmon rivers in Wales, and 35th out of 76 salmon rivers in England and Wales, whilst the reported sea trout catch of 547 ranked 12th out of 40 sea trout rivers in Wales and 22nd out of 105 sea trout rivers in England and Wales.

Figure 1 shows the reported salmon rod catch from 1975 to 2001. Salmon stocks in the Ogmore were extremely low in the 1970s, and gradually increased through the ‘80s and dropped again in the early ‘90s; this is likely to be the result, at least in part, of a large scale pollution incident on the Llynfi in 1987, which wiped out virtually all fish stocks in the lower Llynfi and Ogmore. The decrease in catches in 1991-92 also reflects a drop in National Rod Licence return rates following the combination of coarse and salmon licences, and the lack of a reminder. Catches have then shown a steep increase since the early 90s, remaining relatively stable since 1993. Overall, the increasing declared catch is indicative of the improving nature of the river and water quality. The five year average annual catch has increased from 6.2 (1977-1981) to 81.2 (1997-2001), representing a 13 fold increase over the period. Within the past decade, the highest recorded annual catch of salmon was of 92 fish in 1998.

Figure 1. Ogmore declared salmon rod catch (1975 to 2001).

Sea Trout.
Sea trout constitute a far greater proportion of the reported annual rod catch than salmon. Since 1980, the mean sea trout rod catch has been over 20 times higher than the salmon catch, though this proportion has been decreasing in more recent years as the number of salmon caught on the Ogmore has increased.

Figure 1 shows the reported sea trout rod catch from 1953 to 2001. Reported sea trout catches for the rod fishery were relatively low throughout the fifties, sixties and seventies, and show a gradual and pronounced improvement from the early eighties onward, reflecting water quality improvements in the catchment. Sea trout catches for the Ogmore peak in the mid to late 1980s and 1990s. There has also been variation between peak catches with the most notable decline in the early 1990s following a major pollution incident in 1988. Catches appear to have recovered to pre-incident levels aided by the restocking programme. The highest reported catch during the study period occurred in 1987 when 1061 fish were declared.

The observed variations in both salmon and sea trout catches are dependent on a range of extrinsic factors, such as river flow and fishing effort, but may also reflect cyclical variation in stock performance. The increase in catches from the 1970s to the 1990s may reflect an increase in fishing effort and improvement in techniques over this period. Whilst the decline in catches observed in the late 1980s and early 1990s is likely to be attributable in part to the large pollution incident on the Llynfi in 1987, as well as an indirect result of successive drought years, which occurred over this period. In addition, exceptionally low reporting rates occurred in 1992 because no reminders were sent out when a new combined national coarse and salmon licence was introduced

Figure 2. Reported Sea trout catches, (1953 to 2001).

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