I don’t think I’m false casting in venturing a guess that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will find merit in the recent petition to list Atlantic salmon as an endangered species in the United States. The petition was submitted to the agency by two nonprofit environmental organizations and an environmental biologist. Their names and locations are – RESTORE: The North Woods, Concord, Mass.; the Biodiversity Legal Foundation, Boulder, Colo.; and Jeffrey Elliott, Lancaster, N.H.

The USFWS has until Jan. 1, 1994 to determine whether or not the petition has merit. If the conclusion is affirmative, the agency will have until Jan. 1, 1995 to act on the petition. If, however, the USFWS dismisses the petition, the petitioners will take the matter to court.

The petition is based on several sections of the Endangered Species Act, which I’m sure you’ll agree, apply to this country’s – perhaps I should say New England’s – Atlantic salmon populations. The sections are: 1. Present or threatened destruction, modification, or curtailment of habitat or range. 2. Overutilization for commercial, recreational, scientific, or educational purposes. 3. Disease or predation. 4. Inadequacy of existing regulatory mechanisms. 5. Other natural or manmade factors affecting a species existence.

In regard to threatened salmon habitat, the petition focused strongly on dams and river diversions that restrict and deny access to upstream spawning areas: “Dams divert, disrupt, and interfere with the natural characteristics of a free-flowing stream. The impacts of dams on fish populations include the elimination of upstream passage, flooding of habitat, delay or other constraints on upstream passage in the powerhouse forebay, increased predation of migrating fish in the headpond, increased water temperature, and changes in natural water currents. Such disruptions may confuse, delay, discourage or eliminate both upstream and downstream salmon migration.”

Those factors apply not only to Atlantic salmon but to other species of anadromous fish including shad and alewives. Not surprisingly, Bangor Hydro-Electric Co.’s proposed Basin Mills project attracted the attention of the petitioners: “New dams have been proposed that could seriously undermine salmon restoration efforts. One project now under consideration is the Basin Mills Dam for the Penobscot River in Maine….Although the Basin Mills proposal is still subject to a number of levels of government review, the project appears to have an excellent chance of being approved. The impacts on Atlantic salmon could be disastrous.”

Two centuries ago, New England rivers supported runs of native Atlantic salmon numbering in the neighborhood of 500,000 fish. This year, less than 4,000 salmon, the majority hatchery-reared fish, will return to 16 New England rivers – less than one percent of the historic population. Sad, indeed.

Although the Maine Atlantic Sea-Run Salmon Commission has been successful in establishing a run of Atlantic salmon in the Penobscot River, the run has declined recently and returns of salmon to Down East rivers are dismal, to say the least. But considering the relentless exploitation by commercial fisheries – ocean catches of salmon have declined steadily for 20 years – and increasing environmental pressures, that isn’t surprising.

Recently, Ed Baum, program coordinator of the ASRSC, and Jerry Marancik, anadromous fish coordinator at the USFWS’s Craig Brook Hatchery in Orland, attended a USFWS meeting in Leetown, W.Va., The purpose of the meeting was to prepare a plan that would assist the USFWS in responding to the Atlantic salmon petition. The plan will provide information for determining whether or not to list any of Maine’s wild salmon runs as endangered.

To say that will be a tough decision would be abject understatement. Obviously, the societal ramifications are many. The petition states that “aquaculture enterprises can cause serious negative impacts on wild salmon populations.” But aquaculture has become one of Maine’s biggest businesses.

River siltation and erosion, byproducts of forestry practices, also are mentioned in the petition. Accordingly, herbicide and pesticide sprays used in the blueberry industry and other agricultural practices come into focus. Are these businesses that employ Maine people and, in fact, are the life blood of many eastern Maine communities to be eliminated for the sake of a few hundred Atlantic salmon? It would be unconscionable to even think of it.

Personally, I think the petition has merit – a lot of merit. And well do I realize the ramifications of it: the possible elimination of sport fishing for salmon, the loss of political and financial support from fishermen, etc. But here we will separate those who have genuine concern for the survival of Atlantic salmon from those who are concerned only with salmon fishing.

Right about now, of course, someone is saying, “It’s easy for Hennessey to say that, he fishes in Canada.” Well, let me say this: because of the threatened condition of North American Atlantic salmon stocks, I have decided on a self-imposed three-year moratorium on Atlantic salmon fishing – anywhere. At the end of three years, the results of the West Greenland Fishery “buy out” should be evident. It is my belief that every Atlantic salmon is now priceless. Therefore, I no longer can afford the chance of injuring or killing even one.

I could be wrong, but, again, my guess is the USFWS will determine that the petition to list Atlantic salmon as endangered in the United States has merit. What the agency’s final ruling will be, I don’t know. But I know it will represent a hard pull against the steadily rising tide of conflict between ecology and economy. That tide can be turned, however, if everyone involved pulls in the same direction.