The number of wild salmon in the rivers of northern Sweden goes up and down year to year, it’s notoriously hard to predict. Still, the chance to catch this mighty fish has been attracting anglers from around the world ever since Sweden brought its wild salmon populations back from the edge of extinction a few decades ago. So how did Northern Sweden manage to preserve its wild salmon when many other regions couldn’t?
Norrbotten County is a vast, sparsely populated part of Sweden where recreational fishing isn’t just fun — it’s economically vital.
Each year, salmon runs lure anglers from around the world — like Marko and Pyry, Finnish fly-fishers back for another season on the Torne River with a local pro Michael Stein: “The key there is, you know, you have rivers that don’t have hydropower on them. They’re not polluted, they’re clean. And the fish have a chance to live and thrive there. Places like that where you take care of it and preserve it — that’s where you would find your good salmon angling in Europe.”
Dan Blomkvist, Norrbotten County’s senior fisheries officer, guided us through the Europe-backed efforts to protect and revive these crucial waterways. Wild salmon hatch in the rivers before migrating to the Baltic Sea:
“The rivers are important for salmon because they’re their breeding ground, that’s their kindergarten and their reproduction area. Obviously for the people living there, it’s not just the resource and the fish swimming there — it’s pretty much part of the identity,” he said.
Back from the brink
In many ways, salmon shaped the history, traditions, and ancient fishing ways of this land. But by the 1980s, salmon populations crashed, threatening to erase this living heritage.
“For a long time, the salmon stock has been deteriorating,” Dan Blomkvist says. “A lot of different causes for this, of course, but one main cause was the way we managed the fishery in the Baltic area. 30-40 years ago some of these stocks were actually on the edge of extinction.”
The crisis sounded an alarm, turning eyes to river health. Hydropower dams are a major obstacle blocking fish migration. But power plants in Sweden are making efforts to offset that impact. Come migration season, plant workers catch adult salmon at dams and guide them through pipes to indoor farms for spawning. Young salmon grow at the farm before their release back to the river. It’s not a perfect solution — farm-raised fish can’t match their wild cousins’ survival skills. But it does take some pressure off wild populations.
“Obviously, those salmon don’t have the same biological value, but they’re there to be fished up. So they have an importance in themselves, because if you have those to fish on, the pressure on the wild salmon can be lower, “ Blomqvist explains.
Norrbotten’s rivers may look pristine, but appearances deceive. Loggers once reshaped these waters, straightening bends and smoothing bottoms to transport timber. Vibrant salmon nurseries became lifeless timber highways, ill-suited for the fish’s complex life cycle. Now, the damage is being undone. Restoration teams wade in, placing rocks to recreate ideal conditions — varied currents, depths, and oxygen levels — that salmon need throughout their river lives.
This careful work, part of the EU-funded TRIWA LIFE project, is led by Dan Ojanlatva:“We have seen the results in some of the river system that we have restored since 2017. And up till now that the increase of smolt, of juvenile salmon, is many hundred percent compared to before. So it has a big effect for the wild salmon population, the restoration work.”
Managing a precious resource
Another key to salmon recovery is fishing management. Local rivers are already off-limits to commercial fishing, and recreational angling can face swift restrictions whenever necessary. Glenn Douglas keeps watch on the Råneå River. This season, the underwater sonar recorded dangerously low salmon numbers. Despite the hit to tourism, the local management association made a tough call — a total fishing ban.
“Very few for this time of year — there’s basically no fish in the river,” Douglas tells us. “This is the tragic situation. It’s been going well for so many years now, but last year and this year, we see no fish coming into the river. We see no salmon. No salmon — no people coming visiting us. It shows that we need a holistic, balanced form of fisheries management of the whole of the Baltic Sea. And what’s happened now is basically the disease in the Baltic Sea is sort of flowing upstream and coming into the arteries that flow into it.“
The Baltic Sea’s many woes, such as pollution and overfishing, endanger wild salmon’s future. River restoration helps, but it’s not enough. This uncertainty ripples through local economies, threatening businesses like Robin Landin’s, fishing lodge on the Kalix River.
“We built a new restaurant in 2010 because we saw the increase of the salmon was very, very steep,” Landin says. “But now this year and last year hasn’t been that good. Salmon fishermen, they can book one year in advance a lodge and camp here. But if they see a decrease of salmon, they cancel and go somewhere else, because the salmon is so important for them.”
Hi-tech help for a better future
At this Kalix River waterfall, ancient migration routes meet modern technology. A fish ladder eases the salmon’s journey upstream, while a high-tech camera registers each passing fish.
Fishery officers then analyse the footage to determine each fish’s species, sex, and size, providing crucial data that helps steer Baltic Sea fishery management.
Recent years have been a roller coaster for salmon numbers — from record highs to sudden drops. Yet even in lean years, populations remain far healthier than the crisis levels of the 1980s and early 1990s.
The ultimate goal is a future where wild salmon thrives in Norrbotten county rivers, generation after generation. Dan Blomqvists predicts and unpredictable future: “It will be better years, it will be worse years — but it will be on a level that people who want to invest and start tourism businesses would feel that it’s safe enough to do that. It will add to the quality of life, that you know, that in this river those big silver torpedoes are coming every year, even if I’m not interested in fishing myself. And of course, if I’m a salmon angler — you met a few of them — crazy people — they will love it!”
Europe’s rivers have lost 93% of migratory fish in just 50 years. Restoring our rivers can help bring these finned travellers back home.
