How Trap Nets save wild Atlantic salmon ASF has lobbied government and worked directly with stakeholders to have trap nets used in fisheries instead of gill nets. Trap nets allow fish to remain swimming inside an enclosure. Fishermen can selectively harvest grilse and kill them quickly with little or no suffering. More importantly, large salmon can be released and allowed to continue upstream to the spawning beds.
Large fish are the most critical component of a healthy salmon run.
Salmon returning from the sea, encounter many dangers. But none is more sinister than a gill net. Invisible in the water, the nets trap the fish by the gills. Salmon may struggle but escape is impossible and, unable to swim to maintain oxygen flow through the gills, they die a slow and cruel death by drowning. In human terms, this is like suffocating in a plastic bag.