Scottish Wild Salmon

Appearance & taste

Fresh Scottish Wild Salmon is shiny silver, dark blue on the back and has intact scales. According to the specification, it differs from other salmon in its spotted markings and well-formed heads, tails and fins. The flesh is juicy, firm and a deep pink, smells freshly of fish and tastes intense. Because the fish travel long distances, their muscles are particularly well developed.

There is no fixed size, as growth depends on environmental conditions; the fish weigh between 1.5 and 20 kg. They are free of artificial colourings and other chemical additives and are sold as whole fish, fresh on ice in boxes.

Production

The fish are caught by river and coastal fisheries in Scotland and in a zone 1.5 km wide off the coast, using specified methods. In “net and coble”, a flat-bottomed boat (coble) lays out a seine net that encircles the fish and is then hauled ashore. “Cruives” are old, more or less rectangular box traps on stone dykes across the river, from which the fish cannot swim back. Then there are fixed engines: bag nets, fly nets and other stake nets; the “haaf net”, a net in a rectangular frame that the fisherman holds into the current of the estuary while wading; and “poke nets”, net bags on a row of stakes in which the fish become caught at low tide.

Landing, sorting by size and packing on ice in boxes take place in Scotland, mostly at the fishing stations before dispatch to the markets. According to the specification, the fishing methods have remained essentially unchanged for centuries; today better boat engines and equipment for cleaning the nets help.

Origin & history

Salmon are native to Scotland. They are born in fresh water, migrate to the sea, spend one to three years in the Arctic waters off Canada and Greenland and return to their native river to spawn. They are caught on this return migration. A temperate climate, fast-flowing rivers and good water quality have produced numerous populations with their own migration cycles, spread over almost the whole year. With almost 400 salmon rivers and several hundred genetically distinct populations, Scotland, according to the specification, holds one of the largest and most diverse resources of European Atlantic salmon.

Seine net fishing on the Tweed is recorded around 1160, and the first legal regulation of salmon fishing dates from 1424. At its height, net fishing employed about 3,000 people. According to the 2012 specification, most fishing stations had closed in the previous 25 years, though some are still working. Before modern refrigeration, the salmon were processed in “ice houses” and sent on ice by sailing ship to Billingsgate market in London, traditionally their most important trading place. One such ice house from the mid-19th century still stands near Montrose: a large vault with a grass roof on which evaporating rainwater cools the interior.