Íslenskar landbúnaðarrannsóknir - 01.09.1978, Page 17

THE ATLANTIC SALMON IN ICELAND 15
ern (Vesturland) parts of Iceland (Fig. 1).
The average catch here for the 10-year
period 1966-1975 was about 78% of the
total number of salmon caught in the
country. On the northwestern peninsula
(Vestfirdir) are found but a few salmon
streams with small stocks of salmon, the
total catch amounting to 2.4% of the total
catch. This region is mountainous with
many short, steep streams, which are too
cold for propagation of salmon. In the
western part of northern Iceland (Nord-
urland vestra) there are several good
salmon rivers, yielding 10.8% of the total
catch. On the eastern part (Nordurland
eystra) there are, on the other hand, only a
few salmon rivers. The river Laxá in
Adaldalur is unique in this part, being one
of the best salmon rivers in Iceland. In the
northern part of eastern Iceland (Austur-
land), there are several salmon streams,
the best ones being in the district of
Vopnafjördur. Very few salmon occur in
the rivers south of Vopnafjördur all the
way to the river Thjórsá in the western
part of the southern Iceland. Many of the
rivers in these parts originate in glaciers.
Some of them flow short distances to the
sea and are cold and silted.
Fig. 1. also shows location of the salmon
rivers with catches during 1966—1975 of
1,000 salmon or more, 500-1,000, and less
than 500.
Fishing methods
The salmon are either caught by gillnets
or by rod and line (Figs. 2 and 3). For-
merly seines were also used in the rivers.
Today netting for salmon takes place al-
most exclusively in three glacial rivers in
southwestern Iceland, whereas the other
rivers are fished by anglers. Fishing for
salmon in the sea is not allowed, although
there are a few exceptions.
The salmon catches
Official records of salmon catches in Ice-
land are available since 1897. Before that
time there can be found some scant infor-
mation on salmon catches in individual
rivers. During the years 1897-1909 the
average annual catch was 5,168 fish. After
1910 the catches started to increase. In
Fig. 4 the number of salmon caught from
1910-1975 has been plotted, based on 5
year averages. From 1910—1950 the aver-
age catch was about 15,000 fish. After that
time the catches began to increase,
reaching about 64.000 fish during the
years 1970-1975. The reasons for this up-
ward trend are several. Among them are:
Better catch records, improved manage-
ment, including restrictions on catch ef-
forts thereby providing for ample spawn-
ing escapements, the opening up of new
areas of rivers by fishpassing facilities, and
increased fish cultural activities.
The general upward trend is uniform in
all districts with the exception of the west-
ern part of northern Iceland, where the
catches were poor during the years
1966—1970, and continued to be poor in
the usually productive river Midfjardará
until 1974. The cause of the poor catches
during the years 1966-1970 can be attri-
buted to the cooling down of the sea off
this part of the country by drift ice from
the Arctic Ocean in the early spring of
1965, 1967 and 1968. When the smolts
entered the cold sea there was not much to
feed on, resulting in a high mortality re-
flected again in poor catches of 1-year-olds
in the sea in 1966 and 2-year-olds in the
sea in 1967, a similar pattern being re-