Atlantic Salmon Federation applauds DFO’s contribution to SALSEA

St. Andrews, N.B. – The Atlantic Salmon Federation applauds DFO and Fisheries and Ocean Minister Loyola Hearn’s decision to contribute $800,000 worth of in-kind services toward the Salmon at Sea (SALSEA) research program during 2008.

“This contribution is greatly appreciated”, says federation president Bill Taylor.

“Despite closures of commercial salmon fisheries in Atlantic Canada and Quebec, and a suspension of Greenland’s commercial salmon fishery, a much higher percentage of wild Atlantic salmon are dying at sea than did 30 years ago and salmon populations have declined by at least 75% on average,” he says. “No one knows why, but researchers are convinced that the primary cause for their decline is to be found in the ocean. Therefore, this research will help us determine the causes of at-sea salmon mortality and provide solutions for recovery.”

The SALSEA program is a comprehensive and collaborative research initiative to consolidate all scientific efforts under the guidance of the North Atlantic Salmon Conservation Organization (NASCO).

The plan was conceived, designed, and introduced to determine what is happening to salmon at sea and to find measures to reverse their high levels of mortality. NASCO is an international organization composed of all Atlantic salmon producing and harvesting countries. The research is to be undertaken or financed by the governments of all its member countries, with participation from supporting NGOS, like ASF, and research institutions under the direction of NASCO’s international research board.

The Atlantic Salmon Federation has been conducting research on Atlantic salmon during their ocean migration since 1994 and is a recognized world leader in tracking salmon at sea. Over the past 14 years, ASF has developed technology to track post-smolt migration routes and their distribution at sea.

Using uniquely-coded transmitters and arrays of receivers, ASF has tracked salmon smolts distances of more than 1000 kilometers at sea as they migrate from their home rivers to ocean feeding grounds off the coast of Greenland. Researchers have followed and documented movements of salmon from the Miramichi and Restigouche rivers in New Brunswick and the Cascapedia and St Jean rivers in Quebec all the way to the Strait of Belle Isle between Newfoundland and Labrador. This is the half-way mark to Greenland.

“ASF has already raised and spent more than $5 million on smolt tracking research and we will continue to work to determine what is happening to salmon at sea. We are grateful for Fisheries and Oceans leadership in this important research and hopeful that Canada’s contribution will leverage similar contributions from other nations”, concludes. Taylor.

The Atlantic Salmon Federation is an international, non-profit organization that promotes the conservation and wise management of wild Atlantic salmon and their environment. ASF has a network of seven regional councils (New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, Prince Edward Island, Quebec, Maine and Western New England. The regional councils cover the freshwater range of the Atlantic salmon in Canada and the United States.