Salmon group says limits insufficient

MONCTON, New Brunswick – An agreement reached between Ottawa and Greenland this month to limit Greenland’s salmon fishery is far too lenient to protect Canadian stocks, says the Atlantic Salmon Federation.

Weak salmon runs in the Maritimes are being jeopardized because Ottawa failed to take a hard line against Greenland, federation president Bill Taylor said Tuesday.

Salmon is threatened with extinction in Nova Scotia rivers, New Brunswick rivers south of Miramichi and in the Bay of Fundy.

In Maine, Atlantic salmon is listed as endangered in eight rivers: the Dennys, East Machias, Machias, Narraguagus, Pleasant, Ducktrap, Sheepscot and Cove Brook, a tributary of the Penobscot River.

Taylor said Canada should have insisted that Greenland abandon its salmon fishery altogether. He said the Greenland fishery is the last of its kind on North American runs.

Fisheries Minister Robert Thibault, however, praised Greenland for accepting a catch limit of 55 tons, down from 200 tons the year before.

The agreement was reached earlier this month by the North Atlantic Salmon Conservation Organization.

“The Atlantic salmon resource is highly migratory and the agreement with Greenland will help protect Canadian stocks that migrate through waters off Greenland,” Thibault said.

Taylor, however, said the reduction is on paper only.

Greenland’s fishermen only caught 40 tons of salmon last year – about 20,000 fish – far below the 200 tons they allowed themselves, so setting the quota at 55 tons is meaningless, he said.

The fishery is of little financial value to the Greenlanders, he said.

Between 67 percent and 91 percent of the salmon caught in the Greenland fishery come from Canadians rivers. The fishery was worth $53,700 (Canadian) last year.

Taylor said Canada should encourage Greenland to diversify further and stop fishing salmon completely.

The commercial fishing of North American salmon in their winter feeding grounds off southwest Greenland is a concern of scientists, but its impact on the salmon that must return to Maine to spawn is not known.