AUGUSTA – Fishing has been banned from a portion of the Narraguagus River until the end of September in an effort to protect a tiny population of native Atlantic salmon.

On Thursday, members of the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife Advisory Council reluctantly approved the emergency measure proposed by a salmon biologist.

Fishermen in the area who claim to be pursuing other fish have already caught three of the federally endangered Atlantic salmon this year, said Joan Trial, a fisheries biologist employed by the state’s Atlantic Salmon Commission.

The closed area includes 1,700 feet of the river beginning at the ice control dam in the Washington County town of Cherryfield.

The fishermen claimed to be after shad, a migratory game fish that is common in the affected portion of the Narraguagus at certain times of the year. However, several fishermen were seen using salmon flies, and fishing at a time when the shad already had moved on, Trial told councilors.

Though killing an endangered Atlantic salmon is a crime punishable by thousands of dollars in fines, or even jail time, the confusion over fishermen’s intent made the law “essentially unenforceable,” Maine Warden Service Col. Tim Peabody said.

Education, warden patrols, and even surveillance cameras have been tried without success, Peabody said.

Several council members expressed their unease at taking away a fishing opportunity, but recognized the extreme nature of the Narraguagus situation.

“I think you’ve got to put the hammer down and lock it up,” said Councilor Lance Wheaton of Grand Lake Stream. “If we’re doing this to protect the resource, we’ve got to do it.”

Only eight salmon are known to have returned to the Narraguagus to spawn during the 2002 salmon run, according to the ASC.

“If I’ve got a fish in the river capable of spawning, I have to protect it,” Trial said.

The emergency ban does not require a public hearing and will go into effect as soon as Maine’s attorney general signs the measure. It will end with the fishing season’s close in September. Trial plans to draft a long-term plan for protecting Narraguagus salmon that the council will likely consider this winter.

The DIF&W advisers also learned Thursday that the state has nearly completed its application for a federal permit that would protect the department from liability if a federally protected species were killed by a snare intended for coyotes.

In recent decades, DIF&W has paid trappers to snare coyotes in an effort to protect vulnerable deer herds during the winter. The coyote control program has sparked controversy in the past two years, with critics most frequently citing concerns about humaneness and the possibility of killing federally threatened species, including Canada lynx, bald eagles and gray wolves.

A few weeks ago, Maine Attorney General Jeff Pidot, at the urging of Rep. Linda McKee, D-Wayne, issued a legal opinion stating that DIF&W needs the so-called “incidental take permit.”

A draft application of the permit will be submitted to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service within six weeks, DIF&W wildlife division director Mark Stadler said Thursday.

The approval process can take six months or more, and includes a public comment period, according to federal biologists.

However, Commissioner Poland “Danny” Martin told councilors that he hopes to have the permit in place before the snaring season begins in December.

The department also assured residents who have called and written that a Bangor-based group of state biologists charged with studying threatened and endangered species has not been disbanded.

The position vacated by biologist Mark McCollough, who left to join the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service last year, was intentionally left empty for months while the DIF&W budget was in limbo, Stadler said.

The job has been advertised and will be filled soon, he said.