This book explores the importance of fishes of the salmon family for the wellbeing of society. Important as they are for food and recreation, this book shows their importance as ‘ambassadors of the wild’ – as iconic indicators of the health of the environment.

Authors’ biographies
Preface
Part 1 The native game fishes of the British Isles
1 A natural history of Britain’s game fishes
2 The Atlantic salmon and its amazing life-cycle
3 Brown trout or sea trout
4 The Arctic charr
5 The grayling
6 The whitefishes
7 Rainbow trout: the familiar alien
8 Realising the value of the British game fishes

Part 2 British game fishes under pressure
9 The making and breaking of the modern world
10 A brief unnatural history of the British game fishes
11 Net results
12 Muddying the waters
13 Down on the farm
14 Salmonids under pressure

Part 3 Game fishes for the future
15 Sea change
16 Changing rules
17 Changing values
18 We the people
19 Game fishes for tomorrow

Bibliography
Index

Our world is a rich and marvellous place, home to a bewildering diversity of organisms each elegantly adapted over evolutionary timescales to the environment within which it occurs. All are intimately integrated with the geology, soils and topography, flows of water, chemicals and energy, and the host of other organisms comprising the ecosystems of which they are inter- dependent elements.

However, much of nature remains unknown to us. The endless cycles of substances and energy upon which all living things depend, including all aspects of our own needs – from basic life support to economic activities and aspirations to live fulfilled lives – are reliant upon the ceaseless activities of bacteria and other micro-organisms to a far deeper extent than we are often comfortable to acknow- ledge. We may be familiar with the actual or digital sight of blue whales, roe deer, polar bears, common toads and peregrine falcons. We may, indeed, feel motivated to support charities dedicated to their conservation. This has real value for those conspicuous and charismatic species, and also for the wider, largely invisible ecosystems essential to support them. But let us be under no illusion that what we can see, particularly wildlife we find ‘cute’ and inspiring, is in reality the tip of the proverbial iceberg of biodiversity upon which all life depends absolutely. Nevertheless, charismatic and economically important organisms have a key role as indicators of the integrity and vitality of the ecosystems that support them, and as a flagship around which public support may be mustered.

Game fishes, particularly members of the salmon family, clearly fall into this category of iconic, charismatic and economically important organisms. They have direct and significant value to anglers and associated tackle and tourism trades, to commercial fishermen and local economies, and may also support traditional livelihoods and regional character. However, their very presence also assures us of a diversity of less direct benefits. For example, thriving populations of salmon, trout and other native fishes send measurable but also subliminal signals to the wider world that the rivers, lakes and seas they inhabit are in a healthy ecological state, as well as being fit to support the diversity of human needs for water and productive, fertile riparian soils. It is not without good reason that the US Environment Protection Agency (EPA) elected to simplify public communication of its often baffling array of water quality standards to the more intuitive strap- line of ‘drinkable, swimmable, fishable’ (sometimes augmented with ‘boatable’) to reflect how people intuitively evaluate freshwater bodies. A river fit for its native complement of game fishes, members of the salmon family, as well as other representative species is a river fit for people, able to support our health and other diverse needs into the future.

In this book, we will explore the importance of fishes of the salmon family for the wellbeing of society. There is a largely UK focus to this, but the principles apply wherever in the world game fishes fin through life-giving waters, including all of their life stages whether in fresh or marine environments.

Above all, this book is dedicated to the realisation of rivers, lakes, estuaries and coastal waters fit for the future, serving the wellbeing of all species: fishes, humans and all water-dependent life.
Game for the future; for all; forever.

Dr Mark Everard and Paul Knight