NOAA’s Fisheries Service and the US Fish and Wildlife Service have extended Endangered Species Act protection to more Atlantic salmon by adding fish in the Penobscot, Kennebec, and Androscoggin rivers and their tributaries to the endangered Gulf of Maine population first listed in 2000.
The decision is part of the ongoing effort to recover the imperiled fish, which once returned by the hundreds of thousands to most major rivers along the Northeastern US and now returns in small numbers only to rivers in Maine.
“Legend has it you could once walk across these rivers on the backs of salmon,” said FWS Acting Director Rowan Gould. “Unfortunately, in most years we are able to count barely 1,000 fish returning to the Penobscot and fewer than a hundred in the other two rivers. If we are ever going to recover this iconic species so that future generations can witness the teeming runs that awed past generations, we need to protect it now throughout the Gulf of Maine.”
Endangered status under the ESA will now apply to all anadromous (sea-run) Atlantic salmon whose freshwater range covers the watersheds from the Androscoggin River northward along the Maine coast to the Dennys River, an area which includes the Penobscot and Kennebec rivers. It also applies wherever these fish occur in these rivers’ estuaries and marine environment. Hatchery fish used to supplement these natural populations are also included under this rule.
Landlocked salmon and salmon raised in hatcheries for aquaculture are not included in the listed population.
