Restoration versus recolonisation: The origin of Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar L.) currently in the River Thames

Since the 1970s, when major improvements to the water quality were made, the River Thames has been subject to a high-profile project aimed at restoring Atlantic salmon to the catchment. Whilst initially successful, with hundreds of salmon returning each year in the late 1980s, the number of adults returning to the river has declined steeply again in recent years, reaching a low in 2005 when no salmon were recorded. Using a baseline of genetic information gathered from 3830 salmon from throughout their southern European range, and incorporating samples from the hatchery fish used to stock the Thames, all 10 tagged hatchery fish captured in 2003 and all 16 returning untagged adult salmon captured between 2005 and 2008 were assigned to their most likely river of origin. The results suggest that untagged salmon currently ascending the river originate not from exogenous fish stocked into the Thames, but predominantly from other rivers in southern England. This highlights the potential for natural processes of recolonisation to operate in rivers where salmon have become locally extirpated. These findings also underscore several important considerations when undertaking species restoration projects: (i) previous causes of declines must be sufficiently ameliorated to allow new/translocated individuals to thrive, (ii) introduced individuals should originate from a stock that is closely related to the extirpated population, according to the principles of contemporary conservation biology, and (iii) dispersal and gene-flow from neighbouring populations may play a significant role in establishing new populations.

► Despite an intensive hatchery stocking programme, since 2005 no hatchery reared salmon have been caught in the Thames.
► Genetic assignment analysis indicates that wild salmon ascending the Thames originate from other rivers in southern England.
► Wild salmon returning to the Thames between 2005 and 2008 do not originate from exogenous fish stocked into the Thames.
► Such straying highlights the potential for natural recolonisation of rivers where salmon have become locally extirpated.
► Our findings highlight the futility of long-term stocking without corresponding improvements in habitat and water quality.