Marine publications: information on Scottish salmon and sea trout statistics

The salmon and sea trout fishery statistics are published by Scottish Government in accordance with the Code of Practice for Official Statistics. Please visit About Statistics in Scotland for more information, and to access the Code of Practice for Publishing Official Statistics.

Collection of salmon and sea trout fishery catch and effort data

Returns from Scottish salmon and sea trout fisheries have been collected since 1952, providing a unique picture of trends in these fisheries throughout the country. Currently, over 2,000 forms are issued annually of which over 90% are returned. Under the Salmon and Freshwater Fisheries (Consolidation) (Scotland) Act 2003, wilful refusal to return a completed catch form, or the making of a return which is false in material respect, constitutes an offence under the Act.

Collecting the Marine Directorate salmon and sea trout fishery statistics - gov.scot describes how salmon and sea trout catch and effort data are collected and quality assured. It also provides information on the continuity of the data collected.

Reporting rod fishing effort: guidance - gov.scot provides information to fisheries on how salmon rod effort should be reported.

Under the Conservation of Salmon (Scotland) Regulations 2016, salmon may only be retained within inland waters where stocks are above a defined conservation limit. The numbers of fish returning to an area are estimated largely using reported catches. Effort data and nil returns are important in helping us to understand the intensity of fishing that produced the reported catch. Reliable catch data is therefore a key requirement if we are to accurately assess the status of Scotland’s salmon stocks.

Given the importance of reported catch in the assessment process, failure to report catch will result in an underestimate of the stock and may affect whether salmon may be legally retained in subsequent years. The effects of unreported catch may be stronger in smaller rivers where relatively few fisheries are active.

Please contact us at md.catchform@gov.scot or call us on 0300 244 4500:

• if you do not receive a salmon and sea trout catch return form, but think that you should
• you have not received your form for the current season (forms are sent mid-October)

Publication scheme

Provisional statistics from the Scottish salmon and sea trout fisheries are published in February/March each year. This provisional data provides the number, and weight, of salmon and sea trout caught on the east coast and the west coast by fishing method and year. This includes information for the most recent two fishing seasons with updates due to any new or corrected information received for the previous year.

The updated final Official Statistics for Scotland (1952 to most recent season) are published in April/May each year. The final statistics include the most recent fishing season and any updates to historical data arising from further information that has been received since the previous publication.

A summary is provided of the final fishery statistics from the most recent season for salmon and sea trout, and a topic sheet provides information on how they are collected. The data is presented together, with a commentary, which places the reports in the context of the time series of information, which has been collected since 1952.

Reported fishery data, by month and fishing method, for each Salmon Fishery District (1952 to most recent season), stock Assessment Area (2011 to most recent season), and form return rates (1997 to most recent season) are available for download from the Marine Directorate’s data website.

Additional data may be made available on request, subject to consideration of legal and ethical factors. Please contact md.catchform@gov.scot for further information.

The exact publication dates for the provisional and final statistics are pre-announced at least one month before publication, and future publication dates, may be found by checking  Forthcoming Publications.

User engagement

Contact md.catchform@gov.scot with any comments or suggestions on our statistical publications or data availability. Previous user engagement has resulted in:

• publication of provisional statistics in late February
• publication of data at a finer geographical scale (stock assessment areas)
• collection of salmon rod effort data
• datasets being released as accessible spreadsheets in addition to machine readable formats