This years salmon run is going strong and fishing has been good. The catch has reached over a thousand salmon so far. Water-levels have remained high thanks to occasional showers of rain.
The river warden encountered tourists without angling permits fishing in the river, they received a warning and their fishing gear was confiscated. The warden is a full time employee during the fishing season he represents the owners and protects the interests of the river.
There have big fluctuations in salmon runs and catches were at a peak in the years 2013 and 2015.
Research results from scale samples from Norðurá salmon show that when ocean conditions are hard there is a high mortality rate. Continuous studies in this field have been made in Norðurá from the year 1988 by a government research institute.
These studies continue in the year 2017 and show that the growth of yearling salmon running up Norðurá has been above average and better than in the years 2012, 2014 and 2016. There is statistically a significant relationship between growth of salmon in the ocean and catches in the river. The results point to that yearling catches this year will be better than in the previous one.
Photo. Sigrún Ása Sturludóttir.
