After decades of decline rivers in northern Sweden are once again a thriving environment for threatened salmon. But the species remains vulnerable and the EU is supporting local efforts to sustain wild populations.
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00:00Fishing for salmon is more of a passion than just a hobby.
00:16Even though we only have one week a year to fish for salmon, we still do it.
00:24To be honest, it's so hard to catch salmon.
00:27It's so hard to get hooked.
00:29It's probably the biggest part of this hobby.
00:53So how did northern Sweden manage to preserve its wild salmon when many other regions couldn't?
01:13Norrbotten county is a vast, sparsely populated part of Sweden where recreational fishing isn't just fun, it's economically vital.
01:21Each year, salmon runs lure anglers from around the world, like Marko and Piri,
01:27finish fly fishers back for another season on the Taun river with a local pro, Michael Stein.
01:35The key there is, you know, you have rivers that are, they don't have hydropower on them, they're not polluted, they're clean,
01:42and the fish have a chance to live and thrive there.
01:46Places like that, where you take care of it and preserve it, that's where you would find your good salmon angling in Europe.
01:56Dan Blomqvist, Norrbotten county's senior fisheries officer, guided us through the Europe-backed efforts to protect and revive these crucial waterways.
02:06Wild salmon hatch in the rivers before migrating to the Baltic Sea.
02:12The rivers are important for salmon because they're their breeding ground.
02:15That's the kindergarten and their reproduction area.
02:18Obviously, for the people living there, it's not just the resource and the fish swimming there, it's pretty much part of the identity.
02:24In many ways, salmon shape the history, traditions and ancient fishing ways of this land.
02:30But by the 1980s, salmon populations crashed, threatening to erase this living heritage.
02:36For a long time, the salmon sector has been deteriorating.
02:39Lots of different causes for this, of course, but one main cause was the way we managed the fishery in the Baltic area.
02:4530, 40 years ago, some of these stocks were actually on the edge of extinction.
02:52The crisis sounded an alarm, turning eyes to river health.
02:56Hydropower dams are a major obstacle blocking fish migration, but power plants in Sweden are making efforts to offset that impact.
03:06Come migration season, plant workers catch adult salmon at dams and guide them through pipes to indoor farms for spawning.
03:16Young salmon grow at the farm before they're released back to the river.
03:22It's not a perfect solution. Farm-raised fish can't match their wild cousin survival skills, but it does take some pressure off wild populations.
03:32Obviously, those salmon don't have the same biological value, but they're there to be fished up.
03:39So they have an importance in themselves, because if you have those to fish on, the pressure on the wild salmon can be lower.
03:47Norrbotten's rivers may look pristine, but their appearances deceive.
03:51Loggers once reshaped these waters, straightening bands and smoothing bottoms to transport timber.
03:57Vibrant salmon nurseries became lifeless timber highways, ill-suited for the fish's complex life cycle.
04:10Now the damage is being undone. Restoration teams wade in, placing rocks to recreate ideal conditions,
04:17varied currents, depths and oxygen levels that salmon need throughout their river lives.
04:22This careful work, part of the EU-funded Tree Wildlife Project, is led by Dan Ojenlatva.
04:29We have seen the results in some of the river systems that we have restored since 2017,
04:34and up till now that the increase of small juvenile salmon is many hundred percent compared to before.
04:41So it has a big effect for the wild salmon population, the restoration work.
04:46Another key to salmon recovery is fishing management.
04:49Local rivers are already off-limits to commercial fishing,
04:52and recreational angling can face swift restrictions whenever necessary.
04:57Glenn Douglas keeps watch on the Ranea River.
05:02This season the underwater sonar recorded dangerously low salmon numbers.
05:06Despite the hit to tourism, the local management association made a tough call. A total fishing ban.
05:13Very few for this time of year, there's basically no fish in the river.
05:17This is the tragic situation. It's been going well for so many years now,
05:21but last year and this year we see no fish coming into the river.
05:25We see no salmon, no salmon, no people coming visiting us.
05:29It shows that we need a holistic, balanced form of fisheries management of the whole of the Baltic Sea,
05:35and what's happened now is basically the disease in the Baltic Sea has sort of flown upstream
05:41and come into the arteries that flow into it.
05:46The Baltic Sea's many woes, such as pollution and overfishing, endanger wild salmon's future.
05:53River restoration helps, but it's not enough.
05:56This uncertainty ripples through local economies,
05:59threatening businesses like this fishing lodge on the Kaliks River.
06:05We built a new restaurant in 2010 because we saw the increase of the salmon was very, very steep.
06:11But now this year and last year hasn't been that good.
06:15Salmon fishermen, they can book one year in advance a lodge and come here,
06:20but if they see a decrease of salmon, they cancel and go somewhere else,
06:25because the salmon is so important for them.
06:29At this Kaliks River waterfall, ancient migration routes meet modern technology.
06:34A fish ladder eases the salmon's journey upstream, while a high-tech camera registers each passing fish.
06:41Fishery officers then analyse the footage to determine each fish's species, sex and size,
06:47providing crucial data that helps steer Baltic Sea fishery management.
06:55Recent years have been a rollercoaster for salmon numbers, from record highs to sudden drops.
07:01Yet even in lean years, populations remain far healthier than the crisis levels of the 1980s and early 1990s.
07:09The ultimate goal is a future where wild salmon thrives in Norrbotten County rivers, generation after generation.
07:21It will be better years and it will be worse years, but it will be on a level that people who want to invest
07:27and start tourism businesses will feel that it's safe enough to do that.
07:31It will add to the quality of life, that you know that in this river,
07:35those big silver torpedoes are coming every year.
07:38Even if I'm not interested in fishing myself, and of course if I'm a salmon angler, you've met a few of them.
07:43Crazy people, they will love it.
07:47Europe's rivers have lost 93% of migratory fish in just 50 years.
07:52Restoring our rivers can help bring these Finns travellers back home.