Big increase in salmon runs

By Aaron Beswick

FOR THE SOU’WESTER

Salmon runs in N.L. have doubled this year for the Torrent River and Western Arm Brook over the 2003-07 averages, but nobody knows why.

"The Torrent in my estimation is healthy," said Bill Maynard, a Hawkes Bay resident who has been heavily involved in efforts to preserve the Torrent River.

He estimates the salmon run will top out at between 6,500 and 6,600 this year. The average for 2003-07 was 3,886 for the Torrent. Meanwhile, the counting station at Western Arm Brook, near St. Barbe, has counted 1,788 salmon this year, up from the 2003-07 average of 1,012.

"Oh yes, it's a good thing," said Chuck Bourgeois, head of salmonids for the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO). "We know marine survival has improved, but we don't know the causative factors governing it."

Returns of juvenile salmon to spawning rivers is up along North America's eastern seaboard this year. Bourgeois expects the good news is due to environmental, not human, factors such as temperature, salinity, extent of ice cover and abundance of prey and predators.

"Habitat damage is not really a problem in Newfoundland and marine fishing on the high seas doesn't have any real direct affect on the salmon," said Bourgeois.

In recent years juvenile salmon, known as smolts, have had an average at sea survival rate of six to eight per cent.

"That's a lot lower than in the 80s when there was an eight to 13 per cent survival rate and that's when we had a commercial fishery," said Bourgeois. "The fishery would have harvested approximately 50 per cent of our production. So if smolt survival was eight-12 per cent after the fishery, it probably had been from 16 to over 20 per cent before the fishery."

And he adds a note of caution - salmon numbers are judged on a five-year life cycle, so one good year doesn't mean stocks are rebounding.

"Honestly, I can't give you a decent answer on whether they're coming back. I'm hopeful, but to talk about a rebound you want to see three to four good years."

While 2008 is one of the best years on record, 2007 was one of the worst.

Concerns had been raised last year about large numbers of dead salmon found in the Torrent River. This year, according to Maynard, those numbers are down.

"We've found a few dead salmon, but you'll always find a few due to natural mortality and those who improperly release them," said Maynard. "But there aren't groups of dead salmon being found this year."

DFO had surmised last year that the fish were being beaten up going through an area known as Clifty Falls. An environmental consultant was brought in this year and is working on a solution.

"The Torrent is still a princess of a river," said Maynard. "I've got to take my hat off to DFO for being concerned - they didn't just sit back, they have taken a very proactive approach."

(Aaron Beswick is a journalist with Transcontinental Media’s Northern Pen newspaper, which is a contributor to the Sou’Wester.)