Father and Son on the Frome: Salmon Appeal 2024

Bill Beaumont has been working on salmon on the River Frome in Dorset for 50 years, and now he works alongside his son, Will.

Over the last 40 years, the number of Wild Atlantic Salmon in our rivers has declined by some 80%. If we do not act now, these magnificent creatures could disappear from our rivers forever.

Salmon transcend both the freshwater and marine environments, spawning and spending up to three years in our rivers as juveniles before migrating out to sea in spring. This wondrous 2,000-mile journey takes them to their feeding grounds in the North Atlantic, where they spend 1 to 3 years before returning to spawn in their natal river.

This is no easy journey. At sea, they face many challenges, and as I am sure you’ve seen on the news in recent times, our rivers and the life within them are facing further problems.

The Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust’s Fisheries Department, based on the river Frome in Dorset, studies the health and lifecycle of Wild Atlantic Salmon - from when they hatch and migrate to sea as young smolts, to when they return to the river as adults. Our research identifies the causes of their decline and what can be done to reverse it.

We are now appealing for your help to raise funds for essential scientific equipment to collect high-quality data and maintain this vital monitoring work, and we are aiming higher than ever.

We fit 10,000 juvenile salmon with PIT tags each year to track their movements and survival in the river and at sea, but there is much more to be done and we need your help to do it. Our goal is to raise £20,000 so we can tag fish and fund other vital equipment. Only then can we better understand how these fish migrate up and downstream, the challenges they face, and how to help them.