Salmon hatchery dedicated Rebuilt Orland facility to breed fish for 6 rivers

ORLAND – The band played patriotic tunes, dignitaries spoke Saturday morning, but despite the pomp and circumstance surrounding the dedication of the rebuilt Craig Brook National Fish Hatchery, the population of wild Atlantic salmon continues to dwindle.

Although thousands of the now endangered fish, reared at Craig Brook, are put into several Down East rivers each year, less than a dozen Atlantic salmon have returned to the three rivers where federal officials count them.

Only four fish came from the ocean to the Dennys River this fall. Seven returned to the Narraguagus. None came back to the Pleasant River, which has not been stocked with hatchery-raised fish. It is possible that a few more fish will trickle in, but the season during which salmon return to their native rivers to spawn is drawing to a close.

The number of returns paints an even bleaker picture than in past years.

Last year, 11 adult salmon returned to the Pleasant, 17 to the Dennys and 32 to the Narraguagus. In 2000, three fish came back to the Pleasant, two to the Dennys and 23 to the Narraguagus.

In 2000, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Service declared wild Atlantic salmon in eight Maine rivers to be an endangered species. Five of the rivers – the Dennys, East Machias, Machias, Narraguagus and Pleasant – are in Washington County. The other rivers are Cove Brook and the Ducktrap in Waldo County and the Sheepscot in Lincoln County.

Every year since then “it’s been a consistent downhill slide,” said biologist Ken Beland of the Maine Atlantic Salmon Commission, the state agency charged with overseeing the fish’s conservation.

On Saturday, federal officials celebrated the grand opening of the newly rebuilt Craig Brook hatchery in Orland. The facility recently underwent an $11.5 million upgrade that will allow it to house and breed fish from six separate rivers. This so-called “river-specific” breeding program is supposed to help rebuild the state’s dwindling salmon stocks.

In an hourlong celebration, which included music, awards and numerous speeches, scant mention was made of the reality of the fish in Maine’s river.

Fred Kircheis, director of the salmon commission, called the hatchery the “vital banking system” that holds precious wild Atlantic salmon while scientists try to figure out why so few fish are returning to Maine’s rivers.

Asked after the festivities how she would square the fanfare with the actual fate of the fish, Mamie Parker, the Northeast regional director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, said she had to believe the hatchery system was playing a helpful role and the salmon numbers would improve.

“If at any given point, we feel we are not making a difference, I will pull the plug,” Parker said in an interview.

In the meantime, she said, the hatchery plays a vital role in sustaining the population of wild fish, even if more of them live in tanks in the gleaming building than in the flowing rivers.

“If we did nothing we would know the results – nothing,” Parker said.

“If we make no deposits, we will get no returns,” she added.

Parker said her agency needs more money to do further studies to find out why salmon are not coming back to Maine’s rivers. Some blame conditions at sea, while others believe more can be done along the rivers to make them more hospitable to young fish before they leave for the ocean and to the adults that eventually come back.

Gov. Angus King has said the stocking program may be to blame for Maine’s dwindling salmon population. Past stocking efforts that have dumped hundreds of millions of fish, some from the West Coast and Canada, into the state’s rivers have so diluted the gene pool that it is not possible for pure wild Atlantic salmon to exist, King has said on numerous occasions.

On the other hand, he says recent river-specific stocking programs have shrunk the gene pool so much that siblings are breeding with one another, thereby producing inferior fish.

The governor has repeatedly called for an independent audit of the state’s two federal fish hatcheries. The other one is Green Lake National Fish Hatchery in Ellsworth, which mainly raises salmon to be put back into the Penobscot River.

“His position has not changed,” King spokesman Tony Sprague said last week.

However, while the governor still believes the hatchery system should be audited, he’s put his request for an audit on hold while the National Academy of Sciences reviews the current state and federal recovery efforts. That review, which includes a look at the hatcheries, is slated to be completed by the end of the year.

Parker said she would support any review that points out things her agency could do better.

“If we get good recommendations, we will implement them,” she said.