Recovery plan aired for Atlantic salmon

PORTLAND – A draft plan to help in the recovery of endangered wild Atlantic salmon in eight Maine rivers was released Friday.

The National Marine Fisheries Service, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Maine Atlantic Salmon Commission are seeking public comments through Sept. 16 on the 239-page document.

Public hearings on the plan are scheduled July 14 at the University of Maine at Machias and July 15 at the Augusta Civic Center.

Wild Atlantic salmon in the Sheepscot, Dennys, Machias, East Machias, Narraguagus, Ducktrap and Pleasant rivers, along with the Cove Brook tributary of the Penobscot River, were listed as endangered in 2000.

Federal officials say the wild salmon population in those rivers has continued to decline, with fewer than 100 adult fish returning to spawn in 2003.

The recovery plan aims to halt the decline by reducing threats to the fish.

The recovery plan says the threats include acid rain, the mixing of wild and farmed salmon, the taking of fish by anglers, predation and excessive or unregulated water withdrawals that can affect salmon habitat.

The plan calls for taking measures to protect salmon habitat, conserving the genetic integrity of the species, promoting salmon recovery through educational efforts, and assessing the fish at various stages of their lives.

Mark Minton, the Atlantic salmon recovery plan coordinator for the National Marine Fisheries Service, said regulators will take public comments and then prepare a final plan. He said the final plan should be ready within a year.

The final plan will contain recommendations, but not regulations, although some of the recommendations could later be turned into regulations, he said.

“The recovery plan provides an overall strategy for helping with the recovery of the species,” he said.