BANGOR DAILY NEWS • March 30, 2021
The nation’s Atlantic salmon are hanging by a thread. They are an important part of Maine’s history, lore and outdoor heritage. Maine is the last battleground in the U.S. Fish hatcheries for recreation divert funds from land acquisition, habitat work, reclamation, law enforcement, information and education, and infrastructure, but some are used to breed fish from wild stock to restore lost populations. Ongoing stocking in support of restoration has failed because of domestication. Rather than nurture the fish, Downeast Salmon Federation employs tough love. Raised in untreated river water, and forced to move from incubation boxes to rearing tanks on their own, DSF lets nature, not nurture, decide which fish live. Stocking should not go on forever. Shutting these hatcheries down is the goal, but not until the situation has stabilized and there is a safe level of wild Atlantic salmon brood in the rivers, streams, and ocean. Only when DSF and the feds shut their hatcheries will Atlantic salmon be truly restored. ~ Bob Mallard