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The Atlantic salmon is sometimes called the “king of fish” for its streamlined and powerful beauty. Members of the species undertake an epic journey to complete their life cycle, migrating from freshwater rivers to feeding grounds in the North Atlantic Ocean, and then returning to natal streams to spawn. Their ability to return to the streams where they hatched has captivated and mystified people for millennia. Atlantic salmon are a potent symbol of the need to restore clean, unspoiled waters that run wild to the sea.
ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT PROFILE
PROTECTION STATUS: Endangered (Gulf of Maine population)
YEAR PLACED ON LIST: 2000 (Gulf of Maine population)
CRITICAL HABITAT: None
RECOVERY PLAN: 2005 (Gulf of Maine population)
RANGE: In Maine, at least encompasses the Dennys, East Machias, Machias, Pleasant, Narraguagus, Ducktrap, Kennebec, and Sheepscot rivers, as well as Cove Brook
THREATS: Excessive and unregulated water withdrawal, fish diseases, interbreeding with and competition from escaped farm-raised salmon, predation by introduced fish, pesticides, and sedimentation and other impacts to stream habitat from development, agriculture and logging
POPULATION TREND: In fewer than 300 years, the Atlantic salmon's numbers have decreased by 90 percent. Wild salmon have been extirpated from at least 14 small coastal rivers in the Gulf of Maine, and populations south of the Kennebec River have been extirpated. Only eight rivers in the Gulf of Maine are known to still support wild Atlantic salmon, and at substantially reduced abundance levels. In 2004, total adult returns to the eight Maine rivers were estimated to range from only 60 to 113 salmon, and no adult fish were documented in three of the eight rivers.
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SAVING THE ATLANTIC SALMON
The Biodiversity Legal Foundation, now merged with the Center, was one of the organizations that petitioned for federal listing of Atlantic salmon in the Gulf of Maine under the Endangered Species Act in 1993. This petition led to the listing that population of the species as endangered in 2000.
In 2004, the Center published a comprehensive report regarding pesticides impacts on endangered species. The report, Silent Spring Revisited: Pesticide Use and Endangered Species, discussed pesticide impacts on wild Atlantic salmon in Maine.
A recovery plan for the Gulf of Maine Atlantic salmon population was published in 2005. Although the recovery plan states that habitat restoration and protection is necessary for recovery of Atlantic salmon populations, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Service failed to designate critical habitat for the Gulf of Maine population, a key step in the recovery process. In 2006, the Center joined the Conservation Law Foundation of New England in filing a lawsuit against the two agencies to compel them to designate critical habitat for the Gulf of Maine population and protect the eight Maine rivers where viable wild salmon populations still exist.
In 2005 the Center and allies petitioned to protect the Kennebec River population of Atlantic salmon, and the next year the Fish and Wildlife Service found that protection may be warranted — but the agency failed to act. So in May 2008, the Center joined Friends of Merrymeeting Bay and a Maine river activist to file suit against the Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries Division for failure to move forward on giving the fish the protection it needs.
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Contact: Jeff Miller
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