Vol. 1, No. 4
Headline Back Issues Fall 1997
|
$100,000 a good catch for Atlantic salmon restoration groups Coastal Management Fellow Falmouth, Maine -- Puzzling to scientists and precious to fishermen, the Atlantic salmon is the focus of newly funded efforts to rescue the species from decline. Atlantic salmon live in the ocean much of their lives, but, like many other fish species in the Gulf of Maine, they breed in the freshwater rivers of New England and the Canadian Maritime Provinces. Their migration between fresh and saltwater is what classifies them as anadromous.
"The grants are intended to help jump-start action on the community and local level and attract more support," said Jed Wright of the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) Gulf of Maine Program and coordinator of the Collaborative. These first grants focus on seven Maine rivers believed by scientists to contain Maine's last remaining "wild" populations of Atlantic salmon, which are genetically distinct from other river populations. These include the Sheepscot, Ducktrap, Pleasant, Dennys, Narraguagus, Machias, and the East Machias rivers. Other Maine rivers harboring Atlantic salmon populations, including the Saco, Androscoggin, Kennebec, Tunk, Penobscot, and St. Croix, also merit protection and can be funded through the Collaborative's grant program because they once supported significant wild salmon populations and could do so again, the group maintains. Petition to list prompts action Despite aggressive stocking of hatchery-reared fry (hatchlings that have absorbed their yolk sacs and are able to forage for food) and smolts (young salmon ready to migrate to salt water) over the past few decades, adult Atlantic salmon populations in the Gulf of Maine have plummeted to as low as zero on Maine's Dennys River. The largest Maine population is found in the Penobscot River where approximately 2,000 adults returned last fall. This represents a healthy population for a single river, but also represents about three-fourths of the entire Gulf of Maine population. In 1995, the Atlantic salmon's increasing rarity prompted a Massachusetts-based conservation organization, Restore: The North Woods, to petition the US government to protect the species under the Federal Endangered Species Act. Opponents fear this would prohibit salmon fishing and restrict use of the rivers and surrounding watersheds in which the fish breed and spend their early life. The petition is still under review. Meanwhile, groups such as the Collaborative and Project SHARE (Salmon Habitat And River Enhancement) are exploring other methods to boost salmon populations. Maine Governor Angus King created a task force to draft a Maine Atlantic Salmon Conservation Plan including blueberry growers, who use river waters for irrigation, and paper companies, which harvest timber on land bordering rivers. The task force also includes regulatory agencies and conservation groups. John Albright of the Atlantic Salmon Federation (ASF), another Collaborative member, said the plan addresses issues affecting salmon such as genetics, forestry, agriculture, recreational fishing, and aquaculture. A watershed approach "Regulation is a vital tool for habitat protection and restoration. With the Collaborative, we are also trying to make progress through voluntary partnerships," said Lois Winter of the USFWS Gulf of Maine Program. Rather than focus on a single issue, the Collaborative supports local, watershed-based efforts, addressing all aspects of salmon habitat, from water quality to the surrounding forests. "The grant we received from the Collaborative will help focus attention on model projects that others can look to for promoting positive change in their watersheds." said Dwayne Shaw, coordinator for the Downeast Salmon Federation. The group plans to expand stocking, streambank restoration, obstruction removal, and watershed planning efforts. Other recipients of the NFWF funds distributed by the Collaborative include the St. Croix International Waterway Commission, Coastal Mountains Land Trust, Sheepscot Valley Conservation Association, The Nature Conservancy, Saco River Salmon Club, and Friends of the Kennebec. Efforts throughout the Gulf of Maine combine the resources of government agencies, industry, nonprofit organizations, and the public to restore salmon populations. New Hampshire and Massachusetts collaborate on restoration efforts under way in the Merrimack River. In Canada, nearly 18 nonprofit organizations, including Partners with the Meduxnekeag in New Brunswick and the Clean Annapolis River Project in Nova Scotia, work to improve salmon habitat on tributaries of the St. John, Petitcodiac, Kennebecasis, and Annapolis rivers. Some will get help from ASF's new Adopt-a-Stream program. Rivers not the only essentials Those involved in salmon restoration work emphasize that elements outside a river's watershed such as over-fishing in Greenland, indications of warming ocean temperatures, and changes in the food chain can also affect Atlantic salmon. These concerns make healthy spawning habitat all the more important for the species, noted Winter. "We need to address [threats in the watersheds] so that the salmon that survive at sea can return to a healthy place to spawn," she said. "What affects salmon also affects other fish such as shad and herring," noted Ed Baum, senior fisheries biologist with the Atlantic Salmon Authority, another member of the Collaborative. Consequently, all fish and wildlife that depend on clean water and unobstructed rivers will benefit from work to restore salmon habitat, he explained. Atlantic salmon life cycle
Traveling as far as 250 miles/400 kilometers upstream to spawn, salmon must survive water pollution, and circumvent beaver dams and human-made dams. Once well upstream, the female salmon clears gravel from a spot on the riverbed with her tail, forming a redd in which she lays her eggs. The male fertilizes them, and then the female covers them with gravel. Newly hatched salmon absorb their yolk sacs and venture from the gravel to forage for food, soon developing into fry less than an inch long. By late summer, the young salmon is called a parr or fingerling. After spending two to three years in freshwater, the salmon will develop into a smolt a juvenile fish able to swim from its fresh water nursery downstream into the ocean where it will mature into an adult. Unlike Pacific species that die after one reproductive cycle, Atlantic salmon are biologically capable of surviving to spawn again the following year. Those that do are called kelt. Maine Atlantic Salmon Watersheds Collaborative For more information contact Jed Wright at the USFWS Gulf of Maine Program, (207)781-8364. The Maine Atlantic Salmon Conservation Plan is posted at http://www.state.me.us/governor/a-plus.htm on the Internet. |
||||||||||
Gulf of Maine Council on the Marine
Last summer, the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) awarded a $100,000 grant to the Maine Atlantic Salmon Watersheds Collaborative, a recently formed group of representatives from federal and state agencies, nonprofit organizations, and industry. The Collaborative has divided the money among eight salmon restoration, protection, and outreach projects. Matching and cash contributions have expanded the original grant to $683,000 in project funding.
Atlantic salmon live in the eastern North Atlantic from the Arctic Ocean to Portugal, and in the western North Atlantic from Iceland, Greenland, and Quebec, south to the Connecticut River.
After feeding on alewife and herring in northern waters off the coast of Greenland, adult salmon return to their river of origin each fall to spawn, aided by what scientists believe is the salmon's ability to detect variations in the earth's electromagnetic field, and to identify the distinctive "scent" of its home waters.