by Robert Jackson

Large shoals of Atlantic salmon have filled the rivers that are to be found around the country’s coastline. The reason they are here is to complete a life cycle that for many starts and finishes in the river. They come from the sea for one reason, and one reason alone: to breed. When they return to fresh water, the salmon stop eating and their body undergoes a change that sees it transform from a feeding machine to a breeding machine, its sole purpose to swim upstream, find a mate and a gravel bed where they can lay and fertilise their eggs. Once they reach the river their only real impediment is man. And herein lies a growing dilemma.
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