And the winner is...
Just before Christmas, the draw was made in both the catch and release contest and the scale sample lottery. The catch and release contest has been one of the most important individual measures for Lakselva to reach the spawning targets for the 12th year in a row. When catch and release first was introduced in Lakselva, it was a controversial practice, and this contest contributed in casting a more positive light on the practice. Years have passed, and plenty of research has been done on catch and release, making it more and more difficult to argue against the practice - atleast from a scientific point of view.
Scale samples is another important management tool, but to be honest, we miss a more dedicated effort from many of our fishermen on this practice. With new salmon farms in the Porsanger Fjord, scale samples will play an important role in years to come, since they will tell us about escaped farmed salmon. We encourage everyone to take scale samples of each killed fish, even though you don't suspect it to be a farmed fish. Those who did send us scale samples though, took part in a lottery, and the following four all won a one-handed rod - Jean Francois Morin, Marius Thorsen, Thor Follesø and Jim Rune Fosshaug.
Congratulations to all the winners and a big thanks to everyone who contributed. Also, a big thank you to Bergen Aktiv who donated two trips to Iceland and four one-handed rods to these great causes.
And lastly - Happy New Year!