An anglers' organisation is submitting a formal complaint to the European Commission over what it claims is the Scottish Government's failure to protect Atlantic salmon.

The Salmon and Trout Association (Scotland) believes a failure to assess the impact of increased commercial netting means Scotland has not complied with the European law.

This aims to safeguard salmon populations in Scottish rivers designated as Special Areas of Conservation. The association says lack of progress was graphically exposed during the recent meeting of the North Atlantic Salmon Conservation Organisation (NASCO) .

It is unhappy that an additional 12 miles of coastline and that dormant netting stations had been allowed to reopen without the Scottish Government carrying out an appropriate assessment on the likely impact on salmon rivers with Special Area of Conservation status.

Hugh Campbell Adamson, Chairman of S&TA(S), said it was disappointing that Marine Scotland's senior civil servant with responsibility for coastal salmon netting was unable to attend the NASCO meeting. "Had he been there, he would then have appreciated that Scotland is now widely recognised as a pariah because of its lamentable record on salmon protection…"

A Scottish Government spokeswoman said: "We are committed to meeting our international obligations on salmon management. NASCO does not prescribe the approaches to management of home water fisheries nor does it require that netting for salmon is stopped."