Beautiful and graceful in form, an ancient symbol of regeneration, a sporting prize, a culinary delicacy — this is the Atlantic Salmon.
Each year this extraordinary creature returns from across the Atlantic to spawn in the rivers of Europe, but numbers appear to be decreasing and the reasons why are not clearcut. Salmon farmers, anglers and nestmen all blame each other — the truth may implicate everyone.
The angling, netting and farming industries combine to make the salmon a multi-million pound resource. These interests have also ensured that it is the subject of intense research into its intriguing biology, with its astonishing migratory patterns and, of course, its spectacular waterfall acrobatics.
To the layperson,t he salmon has a distinct and romantic character. Andrew Barbour's book provides us with a unique photographic record of its natural history, a story spanning the ages and demonstrating that, despite the dramatic impact of twentieth-century methods of exploitation, the salmon will always deserve its title, "the king of fish."
