“The entire aquatic world is being reduced,” warns the Loire Grand Migrateurs association

“There is climate change which is undeniable, but there is also the use of man on the environment,” says Aurore Baiez, director of the Loire grands migrators association (Logrami), Friday on franceinfo.

“The absence of salmon means that the entire aquatic world is reduced”, alerted Aurore Baiez, director of the Loire grands migrators association (Logrami), on Friday January 12 on franceinfo. According to the latter, the number of Atlantic salmon has declined significantly. “alarming” in 2023 in the Loire basin. 113 salmon were counted there in 2023 compared to 261 in 2022 and 1,431 only eight years earlier, in 2015.

“Global warming” And “the use of man on the environment” are responsible for this disappearance, assures Aurore Baiez. And according to her, “in the near future”, It is “all the elements of the ecosystem that the world knows” which is threatened.

franceinfo: What is this disappearance of salmon due to? Does global warming have something to do with it? ?

Aurore Kiss: For the most part yes. Climate change is the cause of the low numbers we have seen in recent years. You should know that a salmon cycle is long: five years. So adaptation is slowed down much more by these slow life cycles. It takes several generations to adapt to these conditions. And a salmon lives in cold water. So it will be difficult to change this paradigm.

Do they simply disappear or do they choose other territories that would be more suited to their metabolism? ?

There are several things. There is climate change which is undeniable, but there is also man’s use of the environment. And in this case, what is happening in the Allier River is also essentially due to the use of water and the fact that there is little of it in the rivers. We should also not blame everything on climate change. There are other elements which explain the current situation. Dams slow down the progress of fish. But there are also all the uses around water, with what is done for agriculture, for industry, which is water which is withdrawn from the river, therefore which is in deficit compared to the natural environment. .

Do fewer salmon in the Loire, in its tributaries, mean more salmon elsewhere, or is the population decreasing across the entire French territory? ?

Overall, the distribution and production areas of salmon were general at the European level. So mathematically, when we reduce the production area and habitats, there are fewer salmon. We do not have a carryover since densities cannot increase in certain places. So what we lose on one side, we absolutely do not gain on the other.

Beyond salmon, is the biosphere disturbed? ?

We could ask ourselves, why fight to keep salmon in Allier? This is because the presence of this species is also important for the entire environment. The absence of salmon in these territories alerts us to a global dysfunction of the Altiligrian aquatic environment system and should alert us to the water problem. The absence of this salmon is the alert telling us that the Allier is in bad shape. The entire aquatic world is shrinking. And perhaps, unfortunately, in the near future, tap water will no longer be there. So the absence of water in the river is also the absence of water which is put into the ground and therefore which produces all the elements of the ecosystem that the world knows.