“If we get 2-3-400 fish back next year, the program will be re-evaluated,” said Mickey Novak, manager of the Cronin Salmon Station, in Leverett, MA.
Public Funding for Salmon Restoration efforts faces additional scrutiny during this recession, and US Fish and Wildlife is scaling back plans for the Cronin Salmon Station. Funding is a critical factor, but according to Mickey Novak, who heads the Cronin Station, data from the Atlantic Salmon Fishing Grounds is driving the shift.
Scientists believe that the carrying capacity, or the population a habitat can successfully support, of the North Sea is decreasing. Acidification, where CO2 forces a change in the PH of sea water, and the overfishing of both Salmon, and the bait fish they rely upon, are suspected the culprits.
All Atlantic Salmon from Maine to Russia, migrate from rivers to the same fishing grounds in the North Atlantic. The fish return to their specific hatching river to spawn, or reproduce. The Ct. River represents the southern most range of salmon along the US East coast, and a logical location to relax restoration efforts, if the fish will not survive.
The station will not close immediately, according to Novak. Reluctant to see hard won gains in restoration slip (see Have Salmon been Successful in the Ct River?), Fish and Wildlife will follow this year’s batch of Salmon fry through their four year spawning cycle. As always, millions of fry will be released in streams that feed into the Connecticut River, and thousands of eggs, and fry will be passed along to other New England hatcheries, to maintain a breeding stalk of fish in captivity.
Novak said Fish and Wildlife would continue to track data from the northern fishing grounds. They do not plan to fertilize Ct. River salmon eggs next year, unless the indicators for carrying capacity improve.
“We will stock 4-5 million fry in the spring of 2012, …the survivors of those four to five million will come back in the spring of 2016, so well be here for at least 4 more years.” Said Novack, in a December 1st interview.
A short video featuring Novak and the Cronin Hatchery (3:18)
Video submitted for DP-397-J, Dennis Vandal
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