SALMON SEASON RETURNS

After a six-year ban, fishermen could be allowed to hook a salmon on the Penobscot River under a proposal from the Maine Atlantic Salmon Commission. Allowing a limited Atlantic salmon season on the Penobscot will restore confidence among fishermen in the management, by both the federal and state government, of Maine’s salmon population.

When it became clear that the federal government planned to list wild Atlantic salmon in Maine as an endangered species, the Atlantic Salmon Commission in 1999 banned salmon fishing on all the state’s rivers. This was a necessary decision, but it strained the bond between fishermen and the fish they closely monitored.

The Penobscot, which has been stocked with millions of non-native fish over the last century, was not included among the eight rivers that the federal government said were home to endangered salmon populations, but there was fear that federal agencies would later add the Penobscot to the list.

That fear eased last year when the federal government praised a massive project for restoring the Penobscot and its salmon population. The Penobscot River Restoration Project, which is seeking $50 million, entails the removal of two dams and modification of five others on the river to reopen 500 miles of habitat for salmon and other fish. It is supported by environmental groups, the Penobscot Nation, the energy company that owns the dams and salmon enthusiasts.

Visiting the river in June 2004, Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton called the project “perhaps the most significant step to restore the Atlantic salmon in the past century.” Her remarks were made at the Veazie Salmon Club, where fishermen still meet – for coffee and to lament the loss of their favorite pastime.

The coffee cups could get less use if the Atlantic Salmon Commission moves ahead with a proposal to allow fall catch-and-release fishing on the Penobscot beginning next year. The proposal is the subject of a public information session from 6:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. Monday, Nov. 14, at the Penobscot County Conservation Hall in Brewer.

The commission has offered this proposal because the number of salmon returning to the river have increased in the past five years. A fall season would not endanger the brood stock that is used to produce future generations of fish that are returned to the river, according to the commission’s biologist. The proposal has been reviewed by the National Marine Fisheries Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the agencies that listed Atlantic salmon in Maine as an endangered species. They and the Atlantic Salmon Federation, a conservation group, are supportive.

Allowing fishermen back on the river, even for a limited amount of time, shows that preserving both salmon and a fishing tradition is possible.