With your help, we can save wild fish and bring our rivers back to life

The project aims to reverse the decline in wild fish stocks and protect the ecosystems necessary for them to thrive, thereby achieving sustainable stock levels. To this end, it proposes to reduce the impacts of pollution, river barriers and open-net aquaculture, whilst preserving freshwater and coastal habitats.

Wild fish stocks are facing an extreme crisis due to the degradation of freshwater and coastal waters. In England, Atlantic salmon numbers fell to their lowest recorded levels in 2024, marking a cumulative decline of 70 per cent over the last 20 years. Furthermore, more than 10 per cent of freshwater and wetland species are threatened with extinction and at least two-thirds are in continuous decline, a situation that is devastating nature and threatening human survival itself.

To reverse this trend and achieve sustainable wild fish populations, the independent organisation WildFish focuses its efforts on tackling the greatest threats: open-cage salmon farming, overfishing, river barriers and pollution (chemical, agricultural and from sewage).

The project fulfils this commitment by concentrating its actions on the areas of greatest impact. This includes carrying out scientific initiatives such as ‘Smart Rivers’, the river fly census and the protection of chalk streams, alongside campaigns for water planning and the safeguarding of Atlantic salmon, demonstrating that collective action brings us closer to a future where these species can thrive once more.

• To tackle the main threats to aquatic environments.

• To develop scientific monitoring and research projects.

• To run the ‘Save the Atlantic Salmon’ campaign and projects focused on conservation.

• To address issues relating to planning, water supply and the removal of barriers in aquatic environments.

• To publish and analyse case studies and reports.

The direct beneficiaries are wild fish species (such as Atlantic salmon) and other freshwater and wetland wildlife whose populations are in decline, as the habitats and rivers on which they depend are restored. Similarly, the wider natural world and human society benefit, as their survival depends on the health of these aquatic environments.

WildFish