Management plan developed for Luga River salmon, North-West Russia

Recovery of Baltic wild salmon population planned for Russian riveres

27 May 2014

Sustaining the wild salmon population in Luga River, North-West Russia – having a significant impact in preventing the decline of all the Baltic salmon – would be possible with better management plan, developed further today in St. Petersburg, Russia. Respective national authorities, experts from the research community and other local stakeholders are actively involved in weighing in possible scenarios based on the fresh results of one of the pilots of the HELCOM BASE project. The protection efforts in Luga will feed into the implementation of 2013 Ministerial commitments to further pursue HELCOM Baltic Sea Action Plan conservation goals for the Baltic salmon and sea trout.

The Luga River has key importance since it is one of the few remaining wild salmon rivers that runs into the Gulf of Finland ; besides it is free of migration barriers for ascending salmon, hence allowing the fish to reach the reproduction areas of the river. The Luga has recently been listed as one of the priority rivers in need of conservation and restoration measures by HELCOM Recommendation 32-33/1 (based on the outcome of HELCOM SALAR Project) and had also been listed previously as a priority salmon river by the former International Baltic Sea Fishery Commission (IBSFC).

An inventory of wild salmon and sea trout populations in Luga River has been a key activity of the biodiversity component of the EU-funded BASE Project, carried out since May last year.  The main factors affecting the populations include poaching, polluted spawning grounds, as well as intensive port construction in the estuarine area of Luga River. An important feature of the pilot has been to establish dialogue and to share information with the local communities including fishermen, residents at large and organizations.

Last October, the HELCOM Ministers agreed to prioritize and intensify implementation of HELCOM Baltic Sea Action Plan (BSAP) conservation goals for the Baltic salmon and sea trout to be met by 2015. In order to promote and ensure that the recommendations of BSAP, as well as of the HELCOM overview report from 2011 would materialize also in Russia, it is important that specific action takes place in the Gulf of Finland catchment for the restoration of rivers, such as the Luga.