- Wild salmon stocks in the Atlantic have dropped to historic
lows, and the species faces extinction without strong action, a conservation
group warned Thursday.
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- According to a report from the Atlantic Salmon Federation
(ASF), scientific projections show that the number of large salmon returning
to North American rivers is less than half the minimum needed for conservation.
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- "Since 1974, we have gone from more than 1.5 million
salmon to fewer than 500,000 today," ASF president Bill Taylor said.
"Our most pressing concern is the salmon populations from rivers in
the Bay of Fundy, the Gulf of Maine and on Nova Scotia's Atlantic coast."
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- Mr. Taylor told a news conference in Halifax that resuscitating
the wild salmon will require government regulation and a sharp increase
in public concern. He called for consumers to recognize and value the difference
between farmed and wild salmon.
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- "When people go into a supermarket and see 'Atlantic
salmon' fillets selling for $4 per pound, they should know that these are
all mass-produced products of today's commercial sea-cage aquaculture operations,"
he said. "When the public values wild Atlantic salmon - as an economic
asset worth $200-million to Atlantic Canada and Quebec, as a cultural symbol
and as a barometer of the health of our environment - the government will
respond."
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- Mr. Taylor said that the issue is particularly relevant
during a federal election.
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- "Solving these problems requires habitat stewardship,
research, and regulatory control of harmful industrial practices, all things
that require government leadership and involvement," he said, adding:
"Issues that are important to the public are among the first to get
political attention."
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- The group uses the number of large salmon returning to
their native spawning rivers to gauge the health of the population.
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- Some rivers are doing well, they found, including New
Brunswick's Restigouche and Miramichi, Cape Breton's Margaree and some
in Newfoundland and Labrador. But the overall situation is worrisome, with
fewer than 100,000 larger salmon - the most valuable of which are the egg-bearing
females - projected to return to North America's rivers this year.
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- In New England's rivers - far worse than the average
- fewer than 5 per cent of the minimum number of salmon required to meet
conservation targets are expected to return.
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- The group blames changing ocean conditions, acid rain,
industrial pollutants, poaching and illegal by-catch, habitat degradation,
and poorly-regulated salmon aquaculture practices for the sharp declines.
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- Poorly regulated aquaculture was slammed by another East
Coast group Thursday. The Conservation Council of New Brunswick blamed
the industry for nitrogen emissions into the ocean and called for the government
to move fish farms onto land.
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- At his own news conference, Mr. Taylor used federal government
data to paint a worrisome picture of wild salmon returns.
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- "The inner Bay of Fundy's wild Atlantic salmon population
is severely endangered," he said. "Incredible as it may seem,
there are now fewer than 200 fish in the Inner Bay's 32 rivers, down from
40,000 just 20 years ago. The populations returning to rivers in the outer
Bay of Fundy are likewise under severe stress."
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