Atlantic salmon numbers keep climbing for 2008

The Penobscot River passed a milestone today. More than 2,000 salmon have returned, according to the Bangor Daily News. This makes the run so far this year the best since 1996.
http://asf.ca/news.php?id=259

Elsewhere Atlantic salmon returns have continued to excite comment on both sides of the Atlantic. There have been accounts from many rivers of improved returns even from the endangered salmon populations of the Canadian inner Bay of Fundy river, Big Salmon.

This improvement is important to outfitters and rural economies, in addition to Atlantic salmon populations and river health. A recent article in the Telegraph-Journal drew attention to this, with A Business Deal Runs Through It.
http://asf.ca/news.php?id=257

There continues to be a strong movement for removing dams that are no longer needed, especially when they affect fish passage adversely. A novel approach to involving the public is the dismantling of the dam at Merrimack Village along that river in New Hampshire. There is a “dam cam”, and you can watch the dam being removed. There is a link from ASF’s site at: http://asf.ca/links.php?id=69

Or
http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/habitat/restoration/projects_programs/crp/damcam.html

Salmon migration at sea continues to be a very important topic we need to understand the mortality at sea, plus factors that improve survival, such as we are seeing this year. It is good to see the foundation associated with a large corporation, Total, donating 200,000 Euros to SALSEA * the salmon at sea project led by the North Atlantic Salmon Conservation Organization (NASCO).
http://asf.ca/news.php?id=258

ASFWebworks is an online newsletter from the Atlantic Salmon Federation. If you wish to be added or removed from the list, email asfwebworks@asf.ca

Thanks so much for the information. We are an information site here, and this really helps!

Its Good to watch that dam come down.

I think the North Atlantic Salmon and people who like sport fishing can be thankful to Orri Vigfusson who founded The North Atlantic Salmon fund. A quote from their website: “The North Atlantic Salmon Fund, NASF, is a coalition of voluntary conservation groups who have come together to restore stocks of wild Atlantic salmon to their historic abundance.”

http://www.nasfonline.org/home.htm

Before NASF some rivers in Iceland, Ireland and Scotland were virtually fenced be fishing nets so that only a small fraction of the salmon stock managed to spawn in the rivers. NASF has managed to help turn things around and the salmon rivers are recovering nicely.

Imagine how it was before, you got your fishing license in a good river but almost all the fish was caucht in nets before reaching the river! I am thankful that this belongs to the past and catching salmon in the sea is banned around Iceland. Maybe it is banned also in the whole of the North Atlantic Ocean?