Paper short abstract:

Salmonids went locally extinct in the Taff, Cardiff (Wales, UK) in the 1800s, but since the 1980s the population had been stocked, practice that stopped throughout Wales last year.

Paper long abstract:

The breeding population of Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) went locally extinct in the river Taff, Cardiff (Wales, UK) in the early to mid-1800s. Since their return to the river in the 1980s the population had been artificially stocked by Natural Resources Wales (Cyfoeth Naturiol Cymru), formally the Environment Agency. This practice was reviewed and halted after public consultation throughout Wales last year, a decision that remains controversial among some in some groups (stakeholders).

Here I will examine the history of the relationship between people and the R. Taff Salmon (and other fish species) from the earliest existing historical records to present day scientific data. Naturally, this time frame covers significant changes in the conceptualisation of Salmon and Salmon like fishes (Salmonids), as well as a change in the relationship between the fish and the people interacting with them and with the larger ecology and environment. I will also try to address concepts of value regarding the fishery and of the fish themselves and how this is related to the conceptualisation of the fish and to how this affects decisions on how government funding has been allocated and prioritised.