Atlantic wild salmon populations have collapsed in many rivers due to multiple stressors, raising welfare concerns for millions of individual fish as well as conservation challenges.
Migrating Atlantic salmon face a welfare ordeal spanning thousands of kilometres. Fish caught and returned by anglers experience capture stress, handling, and air exposure. Fish impeded by weirs or low water expend energy reserves needed for spawning. The collapse of populations means that individual salmon that do return face increasingly degraded rivers. Conservation interventions that maintain river connectivity directly benefit fish welfare.