The Atlantic salmon fishing season in Cantabria has ended with what environmentalists are calling a "devastating" outcome . Of the 38 salmon authorized by the regional government, only three were caught, distributed among the Nansa, Deva, and Asón rivers. In the Pas River, where a quota of 15 salmon had been set, not a single catch was recorded. The environmental organization Ecologistas en Acción (Ecologists in Action) has reacted strongly and is demanding a total ban on the species in the region, as well as on European elvers, whose juvenile population is also critically endangered.
The data from the last two years leave no doubt about the trend. In 2025, the General Directorate of Fisheries set a quota of 70 salmon, but only eight were ultimately caught. For 2026, the Regional Ministry reduced the limit to 38 and delayed the start of the season by a month, a decision that Regional Minister MarÃa Jesús Susinos justified as "taking a middle ground ." However, the result has been even worse. Ecologists in Action maintains that this middle-ground approach "no longer reflects the seriousness of the situation" and accuses the Cantabrian government of "living in a fantasy" by managing resources that, in their view, "do not exist."
A decline that is neither new nor local
The problem facing Atlantic salmon in Spain is not limited to Cantabria. A study by the Complutense University of Madrid, published in the journal Fishes , documented that populations of this species in Cantabrian rivers declined by 85% between the 50s and 2022, with particularly sharp drops since the late 80s. Nationally, the average loss is 82% compared to historical levels. Salmon fishing is already prohibited in Galicia, the Basque Country, and Navarre, regions that, according to Ecologists in Action, "are acting with the responsibility that the situation demands."
The causes of the decline are multiple and interconnected. The environmental organization points to reduced river flows, polluting discharges, transverse barriers in rivers (dams, weirs), fishing, poaching, and the general deterioration of habitats. Added to this is climate change, which exacerbates the situation by increasing water temperatures and the frequency of summer droughts. Spain has more than a million artificial barriers in its rivers, which fragment the riverbed and turn summers into death traps for aquatic fauna: when the flow drops, the water divides into isolated pools where dissolved oxygen falls to lethal levels.
The Ministry is already studying its inclusion as an endangered species
Meanwhile, the Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge (MITECO) has commissioned technical reports to assess the possible inclusion of Atlantic salmon in the Spanish Catalogue of Threatened Species (CEEA) as an "endangered" species, as well as in the List of Wild Species under Special Protection (LESRPE). In the case of the European eel, MITECO already proposed in January 2026 that the autonomous communities also declare it "endangered," after the Scientific Committee recommended its inclusion in the CEEA.
Ecologists in Action submitted three formal objections between 2024 and 2025 to the Cantabria Regional Fisheries Directorate, based on national and European scientific reports, in which they already requested a ban on fishing for both species. The organization insists that the regional government must "address this serious situation clearly and decisively, without hiding behind false arguments." Among the measures they are demanding are improved water flow, the removal or removal of obstacles, the control of discharges, the protection of spawning grounds, and effective surveillance against poaching.
The situation is so critical that, according to environmentalists, maintaining fishing levels at historic lows means risking the loss of two of the most emblematic elements of Cantabria's natural heritage. "We are on the verge of losing the Atlantic salmon and the elver ," they warn, and point out that other river species such as the Iberian desman (with a 70% population decline) and the Iberian nase (70% in just six years) are also on the brink of collapse. Restoring ecological flows and removing obsolete barriers are, according to scientists, the most urgent measures to halt the decline before several species cross the point of no return.