For thirty years, a quiet drama has unfolded along Scotland’s shores, a story of tradition, resilience, and a way of life slipping into the past. Photographer Colin McPherson, renowned for his work with international publications, turned his lens towards a vanishing world: the lives of Scotland’s salmon net fishermen.
Generations of families have harvested wild Atlantic salmon and sea trout using time-honored nets and traps, a practice woven into the fabric of Scottish coastal communities for centuries. These weren’t simply fishermen; they were custodians of an ancient skill, intimately connected to the rhythms of the sea and rivers.
The 19th century saw the rise of a regulated salmon industry, fueled by demand from England and beyond. Scotland’s “king of fish” became a prized export, and nearly every coastal town boasted its own thriving salmon fishery, from the River Forth to East Lothian.
But the prosperity wouldn’t last. Beginning in the 1980s, a confluence of economic pressures and environmental changes began to erode the foundations of this industry, pushing salmon net fishing towards the brink of extinction.
McPherson began documenting this decline, traveling thousands of miles to places like St. Cyrus and Strathy, capturing the grit and determination of the men who continued to cast their nets. He sought to preserve a legacy before it disappeared entirely.
His project, titledCatching the Tide, quickly gained recognition. Images from the collection have been exhibited and archived by prestigious institutions like the University of St Andrews Library and the National Galleries of Scotland, acknowledging the historical significance of his work.
For McPherson, the experience was deeply personal. He describes the time spent with the fishermen as some of the happiest of his life, a chance to witness a world seemingly untouched by time. He observed them maneuvering their flat-bottomed “cobles” and skillfully working the sweep nets, a testament to generations of inherited knowledge.
The fishermen’s methods weren’t just about catching fish; they were about understanding the currents, the tides, and the subtle signs of the natural world. This intimate connection to the environment, passed down through families, is what McPherson sought to capture in his photographs.
Now, after three decades of dedication, McPherson is releasing a book,Catching the Tide – Salmon Net Fishing in Scotland, through Dewi Lewis Publishing. The volume will feature 100 black-and-white photographs, accompanied by a historical overview by Fiona Halliday.
The book serves as a poignant tribute to a disappearing way of life, a visual record of a time when the fate of coastal communities was inextricably linked to the bounty of the sea and the skill of the salmon net fishermen. It’s a chance to look back and understand a world that is now, for the most part, lost to time.
