Monday, November 22, 2004

St. Andrews – The wild Atlantic salmon is just one victim of proposed amendments to the U.S. Clean Air Act that will weaken anti-pollution laws. These laws were created to counteract the effects of smog, acid rain, global warming and mercury contamination on humans and wildlife. Winds carry pollutants far beyond the coal-fired power plants of Ohio Valley to Maine and across the Canadian border, where acid rain kills rivers and fish. Conservationists are desperately fighting to restore wild Atlantic salmon rivers that have been damaged by acid rain, and any additional pollution from Ohio Valley makes a tough job even tougher.

“Weakening of clean air laws in the United States will have repercussions well beyond the source of the pollution and will undermine the great commitment of time and resources that go into wildlife conservation and mitigation,” says Bill Taylor, President of the Atlantic Salmon Federation (ASF).

Wild Atlantic salmon are in decline throughout their range in eastern Canada and Northeastern United States. In thirty years, numbers have declined from 1.5 million to fewer than .5 million today. Populations in Nova Scotia and Maine are especially vulnerable. On the Atlantic coast of Nova Scotia, 50 rivers are suffering from the impacts of acid rain coming from sources in the Ohio Valley and elsewhere; 14 of those rivers have completely lost their salmon. The number of salmon is less than 5% of the required number to meet conservation targets in the rivers of Maine. Eight rivers in Maine (Sheepscot, Ducktrap, Cove Brook, Narraguagus, Machias, East Machias, Pleasant, and Dennys) have been declared endangered by the U.S. Government. The National Academy of Sciences has identified acid rain as one of the biggest threats to Maine’s endangered wild Atlantic salmon. Agencies are working to gene bank endangered populations in Nova Scotia to enable restocking of rivers once the acidity has been cleaned up. Salmon from most of Maine’s eight endangered rivers are being kept in hatcheries and are being used as broodstock to help maintain the populations in these rivers.

Mitigation is possible, and conservation groups are attempting to raise the funds and buy the equipment to lime one watershed at a time to reduce the acidity and produce a river environment that is conducive to healthy salmon. The Atlantic Salmon Federation, and the Nova Scotia Salmon Association plan to lime the West River, Sheet Harbour in Nova Scotia. A coalition of agencies and NGOs, including ASF and the Maine Council of ASF, are planning to lime the Dennys River in Downeast Maine. The mitigation is carried out to buy time for salmon populations until acid rain emissions decline and the environment improves. This improvement becomes less likely if U.S. industries are allowed to disregard anti-pollution requirements when they expand or modify their power plants.

The Atlantic Salmon Federation is an international, non-profit organization that promotes the conservation and wise management of the wild Atlantic salmon and its environment. ASF has a network of seven regional councils (New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, Prince Edward Island, Quebec, Maine and New England) with a membership of more than 150 river associations and 40,000 volunteers. The regional councils cover the freshwater range of the Atlantic salmon in Canada and the United States.

Contact:

Sue Scott

Vice President, Communications

506 529-1027 or 506 529-4581

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