BANGOR DAILY NEWS • May 19, 2025
Maine has a controversial and outsized role when it comes to Atlantic salmon. It’s the only remaining state where what’s known as the King of Fish can be farmed in ocean net pens. But it’s also the only state where endangered wild Atlantic salmon survive, in a handful of rivers. To salmon conservationists, those two are at odds, pointing to concerns that the pens could be contaminating surrounding waters and putting wild salmon at risk. Wild-caught Atlantic salmon hasn’t been sold commercially since the fishery was closed in 1948, but Maine companies have been raising them since the 1970s. Proposals for multiple land-based fish farms in Maine have failed to take shape in recent years. The biggest threats to wild salmon conservation efforts are dams and culverts blocking the fish from good upstream habitat, along with international fishing and changing water conditions.