filetsAll those who have fly-fished the most beautiful salmon and trout rivers of the world, consider the Gave d’Oloron in the top ten. This big river flows in the french Pyrénées, on the border with Spain and for more than a hundred kilometers, before it joins the ocean in Bayonne, flows through forest and meadows in the most beautiful valley, one can imagine.

Unfortunately, this river flows in France, whose Administration allows professional drift netting for salmon and sea trout, in the estuary and even upstream in the river itself. Those drift nets catch 80 to 90 % of the migratory run every spring.

To fight this ecological aberration and economic disaster for the valley, the association « Salmo Tierra-Salva Tierra » was created last year with three objectives :

  1. To force the net fishing industry on the Gaves basin to comply with current European laws and other european rivers that have abolished or regulated net fishing in their estuaries in order to develop proper management of migratory fish: salmon, sea trout, shad etc,  to help to restore these resources and develop a sustainable sports fishing economy.
  2. Salmon is the stamp of good, clean water and a healthy environment so Salma Tierra/Salva Tierra works together with bathing associations and kayakers to enlarge the tourist proposal and return the Gaves to their rightful place at the centre of country life

 

  1. To encourage local farmers to practice a more sustainable method of farming, to help restore the environment and to eventually develop a label for those farmers wishing to partake in the restoration of the river

Please join us!saumon