Atlantic Salmon Federation

• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Atlantic salmon
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.180.6133; http://www.agobservatory.org/library.cfm?refID=70205

As a result of pressures in both freshwater and marine environments, the number of wild Atlantic salmon returning to North American river’s declined from 1.5 million in 1975 to 350,000 in 2000. The situation is particularly acute in Canada’s Bay of Fundy and Downeast Maine, where many of the populations now number fewer than 100 adult fish. Aquaculture, once thought to be the saving grace of declining salmon populations, is now accused of being a significant threat to the restoration of wild salmon stocks in eastern North America. The industry’s exponential growth has resulted in a dense array of coastal farms many of which are in close proximity to the wild salmon rivers. The growing pains of this relatively young industry have included large, documented escapes and disease outbreaks. Given the current vulnerable state of the wild salmon stocks, the potential risk of genetic dilution and disease transmission from farmed fish is a serious concern to the regulators and environmental community. Today competing mandates between governmental agencies and friction between the federal In the past 20 years aquaculture has grown expo-and local jurisdictions are clouding proper regunentially in Canada’s Bay of Fundy and Downeast