Tuesday, November 15, 2005

For immediate release

November 15, 2005

St. Andrews – The financial benefits promised by the federal government’s $30 million endowment fund to support wild Atlantic salmon are in jeopardy if the fund doesn’t materialize soon. This will disappoint thousands of volunteers and salmon conservationists who have clung to the prospect of getting federal government funding to share the large expenses associated with river and fish restoration.

The Atlantic Salmon Federation (ASF), the organization’s five Canadian Regional Councils, and their 125 member river associations enthusiastically welcomed Finance Minister Ralph Goodale’s spring 2005 budget announcing the $30 million investment in a special fund. The interest from the fund would support habitat restoration, enhancement, education, research and conservation programs being delivered by river associations and watershed committees in support of wild Atlantic salmon.

ASF President Bill Taylor said, “Since February, we have participated in good faith in consultations on how the fund should be administered so that this desperately-needed endowment would be set up and become operational quickly to give some relief to volunteer-driven projects. Unfortunately, the bureaucracy has moved so slowly that we are now in a crunch. The rubber has to hit the road now if this fund is to materialize by the end of the year and begin giving the support we expect to cash-strapped groups that are hanging on by their fingertips. Until the $30 million is invested, no interest is accruing, and therefore no funding exists for disbursement to worthy projects.”

David Reid, President of the Nova Scotia Salmon Association (NSSA), said “Nova Scotia has intensive restoration programs going on, including bringing technology from Norway that has the potential to help 50 rivers in this province that are severely affected by acid rain. ASF and NSSA raised $270,000 in private funding to buy a lime doser for the West River, Sheet Harbour to raise the river’s pH and allow fish to survive. The doser program, the first of its kind in North America, received no funding from the federal government, whereas the Norwegian government spends at least $20 million annually on acid rain mitigation.

Mr. Reid continued, “The Canadian Government needs to invest a lot more into keeping our waterways and fish healthy, and the Atlantic Salmon Endowment Fund would be a first step in the right direction, but it must come quickly. Many of Nova Scotia’s rivers are running out of time.”

Mr. Taylor concluded, “After four years of negotiations with Government, this year we obtained a fund that was less than the $50 million requested, but it was a beginning. We hailed the funding as coming at an opportune time to protect salmon at home in association with more salmon returns to our rivers, thanks to ASF’s Conservation Agreement with Greenland’s commercial salmon fishermen that protects migrating Canadian salmon on their feeding grounds. That the Canadian government is dragging its feet on this modest investment is truly frustrating to ASF and the thousands of hard-working and dedicated river conservationists who volunteer their labour and raise money to conserve and restore wild Atlantic salmon and their environment.”

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 Western New England) which have 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.

ASF Contacts:

Lewis Hinks, Regional Director, Nova Scotia

902 275-3407 (office) or 902 275-7494

or

Muriel Ferguson Communications Office

506 529-1033 (direct line) or 506 529-4581 (switchboard)

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