Anglers who have struggled to catch salmon with their fishing rods in the rivers of Dartmoor may be interested to know that the industry's ruling body had apparently been told of the cause but failed to act.
The Environment Agency (EA) was given a list of recommendations to improve the population of the species by scientists at the University of Hull International Fisheries Institute in 2008 but these were not implemented, an investigation by the Angling Trust alleges.
Experienced local angler John Montague said he had witnessed a "dramatic decline of salmon" over the 50 years he had spent fishing on the Teign, but said that whenever anglers had previously informed the EA of the situation they were "met with stony indifference".
The Hull study, which was commissioned by the EA, had concluded that over-abstraction had led to lower flows of salmon in rivers after their long journey from the Atlantic Ocean.
US angler Rob Schmidt did not seem to have any problems catching the species in the Olympic Peninsula Salmon Derby, scooping $10,000 (£6,227) in prize money for a 18.90lb haul, the News Tribune reported.
