Nova Scotians honoured for salmon conservation

St. Andrews, N.B. – Two Nova Scotians have received the top Canadian award for conserving wild Atlantic salmon from the Atlantic Salmon Federation (ASF).

The awards were presented to George Ferguson of Lower Sackville and Carl Purcell of Dartmouth at ASF’s board meeting in St. Andrews-by-the-Sea, N.B.

“George and Carl are exemplary leaders whose involvement in saving wild Atlantic salmon began with Nova Scotia rivers and has expanded to the international conservation arena. These dedicated volunteers have taken projects from conception to boardrooms to in-river completion. Hands-on work in rivers is a large part of most projects they undertake,“ said ASF President Bill Taylor.

“This is only the second time in 33 years that there are two recipients of ASF’s Happy Fraser Conservation Award,” added Taylor. “It is interesting that both men are from Nova Scotia, where great work is being done to conserve and restore struggling wild salmon populations.”

Ferguson has been involved in salmon conservation since 1988. He played a major role in cleaning up and restoring salmon to the badly polluted Sackville River and helped ensure the installation of a counting fence to monitor the river’s salmon populations.

He also took on acid rain, which has devastated salmon populations in 50 Nova Scotia rivers. He organized a group of anglers, conservationists, government agencies, and the power corporation to import technology that had been used successfully to revitalize many of Norway’s acid-damaged rivers. The result was a Norwegian-built lime doser in West River, Sheet Harbour to mitigate the water’s high acidity level.

This doser was a first for North America. So far, West River, Sheet Harbour has been able to attain a pH of 5.5 and can now support salmon production. Lessons learned in this river have the potential to save other acid-impacted rivers in Nova Scotia and in the rest of North America.

Purcell began working on behalf of wild Atlantic salmon in the 1970s and is currently serving a second term as President of the Nova Scotia Salmon Association. His initial interest was in Nova Scotia’s wild salmon, but over the years he has broadened his pursuits to the Atlantic salmon’s whole range.

He has helped form river specific conservation organizations to address problems that are unique to the rivers they represent. These issues include efforts to restore salmon to the rivers flowing into the inner Bay of Fundy, where about 40,000 wild Atlantic salmon have disappeared over the past two decades.

Purcell, who is a dedicated environmentalist and an accomplished communicator, takes an active role in the media to put forth issues related to fish and waterways.

Both men recently received Canadian Recreational Fisheries Awards in recognition of their outstanding contributions to protect and enhance Canada's recreational fisheries.

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 and Labrador, 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.