N.B. calls for immediate action on province’s historically low salmon populations

An Atlantic salmon leaps while swimming inside a farm pen near Eastport, Maine, Sunday, Oct. 12, 2008, in Eastport, Maine. AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty

New Brunswick is calling on the federal government to take immediate action on the province’s historically low salmon population.

Natural Resources Minister John Herron says the situation is alarming and is calling on Diane Lebouthillier, minister of federal Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard, to release the department’s Wild Atlantic Salmon Conservation Strategy.

Herron says the province needs a strategy that includes:

- information on salmon in New Brunswick

- reference to specific watersheds such as Miramichi

- potential causes of population decline, such as predation

- mitigation measures

In an open letter to Lebouthillier, Herron writes: “I share the perspective of leading stakeholders and experts that the Atlantic salmon is facing virtual extinction in our rivers. We agree that the near extirpation of the Atlantic salmon in the region is greatly due to DFO’s striped bass enhancement strategy that is now out of balance and harmful to the existence of Atlantic salmon.”

Herron added, although the Department of Fisheries and Oceans has jurisdiction over salmon, the New Brunswick government and stakeholders are willing to do their part.

The province says it has engaged with the federal department in the development of the strategy.

“We need a strategy with transformative investments in the areas of conservation, stewardship, salmon enhancement and stock rebuilding,” said Herron in a news release.

“Our expectation is that the Department of Fisheries and Oceans will appropriately resource implementation of the strategy, similar to investments made to support the Pacific Salmon Strategy Initiative.”

Herron plans to meet with stakeholders to further discuss the issue.

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