Council Receives Recognition from Atlantic Salmon for Northern Maine

April 16, 2019

The NB Salmon Council (NBSC) received an award of recognition from its Atlantic Salmon for Northern Maine (ASNM) affiliate at that group’s annual find-raising dinner on April 6 in Presque Isle.  The award and commemorative plaque are presented annually to people or groups who help with the ASNM’s efforts to recolonize the Aroostook River and other Maine tributaries of the St. John River with wild sea-run Atlantic salmon.

In 2018, the NBSC and another affiliate, the St. John Basin Salmon Recovery Inc., assisted ASNM in acquiring 40,000 eyed Tobique River eggs from the Mactaquac Biodiversity Facility, and in completing the permitting process to transport the eggs across the international boundary.  The eggs are currently being incubated in the ASNM’s hatchery at Dug Brook near Ashland, Maine.  After hatching and just prior to complete yolk absorption, the unfed fry that are produced will be released to an Aroostook River tributary where they will grow in the wild for two or three years.  It is hoped that the smolts produced will jump start a Maine-based Captive Adult Rearing program for the Aroostook and other northern Maine St. John River tributaries.

John Pugh (left), president of the NBSC receiving the award from Brian Fields, President ASNM