​The River Annan District Salmon Fishery Board

The regulatory frame work of  fisheries started early on the Solway rivers with the Solway Firth Fisheries Act (Scotland) 1804. The reason the Solway rivers obtained this protection first is perhaps due to the value of the fisheries with their relatively close proximity to large population centres were the fish could be sold. There were a number of provisions in this act but in essence it made the fishing for salmon and freshwater fish illegal without written permission.  By the mid 1800s transport networks, principally the train, meant that all of Scotland's fisheries were of high value, mainly due to the net fisheries and the ability to send fish, on ice, to large population centres further south. Sport fishing was also becoming more popular so in 1868 the power was given for salmon fishery districts to set up District Salmon Fishery Boards to manage and protect the fisheries (Salmon and Freshwater Fisheries Act (Scotland) 1868). They did this by extracting a levy based upon the value of the fishing from anyone who owned salmon fishing in their district. The Boards employed a Clerk and several water bailiffs to enforce fishery regulations. This Act was renewed, added to over several years, notably with the 1951 Act. All of these pieces of legislation were finally drawn together under the Salmon and Freshwater Fisheries (Consolidation) (Scotland) Act 2003. This is the legislation that the Board currently works under.