As it’s that time of year again, we’re reposting our episode from December 2024 with chef and sustainable food activist, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, for a special Christmas episode of The Last Salmon podcast explaining why farmed salmon should not be on your Christmas dinner table this or any year.

‘We need to hold the industry to account and provide people with alternatives,’ says Hugh.  ‘The way you spend your money is a vote.  Consumers have the power to affect change.’

Hugh is also critical of celebrity chefs and the media who promote and use farmed salmon.

‘Once chefs have the opportunity,’ he tells Jim. ‘And it’s often a very well-paid opportunity, to appear on television and talk about food, sell their books and promote their various businesses, that increases their responsibility to think about the quality and sustainability of the produce that they’re using and that they’re communicating to the public about.’

Hugh has a long record of opposition to farmed salmon that is unsustainably produced and he tells Jim why a bass will be coming out of his freezer for Christmas instead.  Plus he has some great tips and recipe ideas for alternatives for the dinner table this Christmas.
 
Image: RiverCottage.net

The Last Salmon, presented by actor, artist and activist, Jim Murray, offers hope and solutions to the tragic story that is unfolding for an iconic species in crisis - the wild Atlantic salmon.

For regular updates, follow the show at Instagram.com/TheLastSalmon.

Once abundant in England’s crystal-clear chalk rivers, our chalk stream salmon now teeter on the edge of extinction.

The chalk stream salmon is one of the rarest fish on earth and yet, after 2 million years they are at one minute to midnight.

There are a myriad of pressures and problems pushing them to the brink but there is urgent work underway to help bring them back and Charles Rangeley-Wilson, the acclaimed angling writer and river conservationist joins me on the latest episode of The Last Salmon to tell me about his love of the chalk stream salmon and why Project White Hart could be our last great hope to rekindle a salmon run that has shaped our culture, landscape, and imagination for centuries.

To find out more about Project White Hart, visit:

https://projectwhitehart.com/

The Last Salmon Season 2 is supported by The Missing Salmon Alliance.
        
The Last Salmon, presented by actor and activist, Jim Murray MBE, offers hope and solutions to the tragic story that is unfolding for an iconic species in crisis - the wild salmon.  

For regular updates, follow the show at Instagram.com/TheLastSalmon.

Frederik W. Mowinckel is unique amongst those who oppose salmon farms.  It was his family who were some of the original salmon farmers in Norway that gave rise to the global, toxic industry, but the Mowinckels are now some of the most outspoken critics of its practices, especially that of Mowi who used the Mowinckel surname for their company name.
 
Frederik speaks to Jim on the latest episode of The Last Salmon to talk about his activism, the damage being done by salmon farming companies and why it doesn't have to be this way.
 
The Last Salmon Season 2 is supported by The Missing Salmon Alliance.
       
The Last Salmon, presented by actor and salmon activist, Jim Murray MBE, offers hope and solutions to the tragic story that is unfolding for an iconic species in crisis - the wild salmon.  

For regular updates, follow the show at Instagram.com/TheLastSalmon.

Image: https://www.instagram.com/smith_corin/

Continuing our journey across the Atlantic, this week we’re in Iceland, a land synonymous with countless stunning salmon rivers.  

Peter Rippin, is a pioneering Englishman who throughout his career, has been setting up and running fishery operations throughout the world.

Peter currently runs the East Ranga in Iceland, a very productive salmon river and unique in that it is solely a hatchery river run for angling.

Based in Iceland for the past twenty years, Pete is perfectly placed to give his insights into the successes and failures of Iceland’s salmon angling industry, and where it might be heading in the context of declining salmon numbers.

Image: www.EastRanga.com

The Last Salmon Season 2 is supported by The Missing Salmon Alliance.
      
The Last Salmon, presented by actor and salmon activist, Jim Murray MBE, offers hope and solutions to the tragic story that is unfolding for an iconic species in crisis - the wild salmon.  

For regular updates, follow the show at Instagram.com/TheLastSalmon.

Over this side of the Atlantic you probably haven’t heard of Hooké or its founder, Fred Campbell, but I liken him to a Canadian Yvon Chouinard, someone who has committed their life to the outdoors whilst also running a successful business.  

And like Patagonia’s founder, Fred Campbell, is someone truly obsessed with protecting nature and the wild salmon.

To highlight the salmon’s precarious state, Fred has helped produce, Scale of Change, a new documentary to try and instil a sense of urgency and action to anyone that cares about the wild salmon.

He tells me about the impetus behind the documentary, why Atlantic salmon on the eastern seaboard of North America are under threat and how Northern Canada is one of the last bastions of truly great salmon runs that must be protected.

Watch the Scale of Change documentary at:

https://www.scaleofchange.org/

The Last Salmon Season 2 is supported by The Missing Salmon Alliance.
     
The Last Salmon, presented by actor and salmon activist, Jim Murray MBE, offers hope and solutions to the tragic story that is unfolding for an iconic species in crisis - the wild salmon.  

For regular updates, follow the show at Instagram.com/TheLastSalmon.

Every so often you meet someone whose life is so remarkable and whose love of and determination in saving nature leaves you in awe.

I think of the campaigner, Alex Morton, from Season 1 on the Last Salmon, who has been responsible for getting the open pen salmon farms shut down in British Columbia, or the late Jane Goodall, the renowned primatologist and conservationist.

This week’s guest on The Last Salmon, is someone who has spent his life in the cause of salmon conservation and who has been at the forefront of creating salmon strongholds across the Russian Far East, and in the Pacific North West.

Guido Rahr is President and CEO of the Wild Salmon Centre in Portland, Oregon, and I speak to Guido about the concept and strategy to creating salmon strongholds, finding out what lessons we can learn for the Atlantic salmon in the process.

Image: https://wildsalmoncenter.org/

The Last Salmon Season 2 is supported by The Missing Salmon Alliance.
    
The Last Salmon, presented by actor and salmon activist, Jim Murray MBE, offers hope and solutions to the tragic story that is unfolding for an iconic species in crisis - the wild salmon.  

For regular updates, follow the show at Instagram.com/TheLastSalmon.

Just a few years ago the Baltic salmon were thriving, with huge numbers of fish running the pristine waters of Sweden.

Once thought to be on the brink, the salmon bounced back and were being celebrated as a success story.

However, something drastic has changed and the Baltic salmon are once again in decline.

Emilie Bjorkman and Lars Munk are fanatical salmon anglers who’ve committed their lives to the cause.  They needed to find out what was causing its demise, documenting it in a film this year called, Free Falling.

Emilie and Lars join me on this episode of The Last Salmon to talk about the significance of the Baltic salmon, how their hopes for the fish have been badly hit, and what they intend to do about it.

 
Watch Free Falling at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9Ujs1Ykfac 

 
The Last Salmon Season 2 is supported by The Missing Salmon Alliance.
   
 
The Last Salmon, presented by actor and salmon activist, Jim Murray MBE, offers hope and solutions to the tragic story that is unfolding for an iconic species in crisis - the wild salmon.  

For regular updates, follow the show at Instagram.com/TheLastSalmon.

Norway.  The legendary land of the giant salmon has been struggling of late, not least in the face of so many salmon farms throttling its beautiful coastline, but fishery and lodge owners are fighting back, trying to do what they can to preserve the wild salmon in Norway.
 
Ann-Britt Bogen from Gaula Fly Fishing Friends, and Matt Hayes, one of the UK’s most famous anglers who now lives full time with his wife and family running a salmon lodge in Norway, join Jim to tell him how the 2025 salmon season played out on their beloved and prestigious Gaula river, their efforts at introducing new regulations and a new mindset towards catch and release and why, despite it all, if you want to catch a big salmon, there is still nowhere else quite like Norway.

The Last Salmon Season 2 is supported by The Missing Salmon Alliance.
  

 The Last Salmon, presented by actor and salmon activist, Jim Murray MBE, offers hope and solutions to the tragic story that is unfolding for an iconic species in crisis - the wild salmon.  

For regular updates, follow the show at Instagram.com/TheLastSalmon.

Rewilding.  It’s about taking a step back and leaving nature alone.  

But, in the 21st century how can it be achieved?

Ben Goldsmith certainly believes it can – and must be done - and he is one of its foremost champions.

It was through tragedy however, after the death of his teenage daughter, Iris, when she was just 15, that, in grieving, Ben found solace and hope through the embrace of nature.

And ever since, he has been on a mission to increase rewilding initiatives throughout the UK and. abroad, and he has his own podcast, Rewilding the World, highlighting the success stories on these shores and around the world.

Ben joins Jim on the latest episode of The Last Salmon to explain how rewilding can help save the wild salmon and some of the practises that need to be put in place for it to happen.

For more from Ben visit:
https://www.youtube.com/@BenGoldsmithRewilding

The Last Salmon Season 2 is supported by The Missing Salmon Alliance.
  
Image: https://atlanticsalmontrust.org

The Last Salmon, presented by actor and salmon activist, Jim Murray MBE, offers hope and solutions to the tragic story that is unfolding for an iconic species in crisis - the wild salmon.  

For regular updates, follow the show at Instagram.com/TheLastSalmon.

Midst the doom and gloom about the future of wild salmon, we have to believe - and have faith - that our collective actions – be it through conservation efforts, awareness campaigns, political lobbying – can and will have an effect.

And it is for the long term, for the next generation, that we really have to be thinking about wild salmon and for the sport of fly fishing for salmon itself.

This week on the Last Salmon I’m joined by two fanatical lifelong fly anglers who are not only hugely influential, but they have taken the brave move to run a salmon fishery in the north of England at the famous Bywell.

So why do it?  Why risk it all?  For the husband and wife team of Stephan Dombaj and Marina Dombaj née Gibson, they care and believe so much in the future of the salmon that this is their way of trying to protect the species they love.

And it’s not just about the fishing, as they explain, it’s about showing the next generation why fighting to save the wild salmon is so important……

The Last Salmon Season 2 is supported by The Missing Salmon Alliance.
 
 Image courtesy of: https://www.instagram.com/bywellsalmonfishing/

The Last Salmon, presented by actor and salmon activist, Jim Murray MBE, offers hope and solutions to the tragic story that is unfolding for an iconic species in crisis - the wild salmon.  

For regular updates, follow the show at Instagram.com/TheLastSalmon.