Good News For Penobscot River Atlantic Salmon

Now 3049 As of September 5th
If you are a reader of this blog then you know that I have been a proponent of natural climate cycles influencing ocean habitat.  The dramatic increases all over the North Atlantic in numbers and size of Atlantic salmon are, I hope, a sign of things to come over the next ten years.

For so many years I traveled to fish for Atlantic Salmon in  Maine.  The earliest run was on the Penobscot river that flowed through the City of Bangor and then on to the Atlantic Ocean.  I tried hard for that Presidential salmon, the first caught for the season, but it never happened for me.  This is a big river and also one that was blocked by the first up stream dam called Veazie.

In the middle of the dam was a stone block fish ladder that was very inefficient.  This was a good thing for fishing as they would stack up in the pools below the dam.  Later a new ladder was built to capture the fish to be transported and used for the stocking program.  Because the fish captured were the original genome the raising of these fish has a viable possibility to sustain the run.

A number of years ago fishing was closed on all Maine rivers as the Federal Government contributed funds so long as the salmon are considered endangered.

This year we are seeing a dramatic increase in early numbers when compared to the past few decades.  Some of the reasons are clear as the netting buyouts off Greenland.  The one factor that is also in  place is the cycle of ocean environment now in a good trend for a number of North Atlantic cold water species.  It will be interesting to see what happens with the North Atlantic Cod as well.


William