atlantic salmon

A conversation with fly fisherman Gary Spencer

August 24, 2015

New Brunswick has some amazing rivers and some of the best fishing. Both have been important in shaping the identity of New Brunswickers. Being by, and in the water, is part of a traditional way of life that has been passed on from generation to generation. The salmon fishing industry in particular has always played a very important role in the lives of the residents of New Brunswick, and especially for those of us living in the Nashwaak watershed.

The recreational salmon fishery provides vital employment for the fishing lodges and regional ecotourism. However, the Nashwaak River, once so plentiful in salmon, has seen a decreasing trend in the number of fish returning to the ocean for over 20 years (see our previous article about the decline)

Gary Spencer, a Nashwaak resident; fly fisherman of the Nashwaak river; and a dedicated volunteer of the Nashwaak Watershed Association and other organizations like the NB Salmon Council, shares his thoughts and experiences about salmon fishing and how the decline of salmon returns has impacted the fishers and the residents of the area.

Aliza: When was the first time you went fishing?

Gary: I was 6 or 7 years old and my brother and I fished for trout in Sands Brook. I caught a 7″ trout. My mom made a big deal about it and we ate it (and others) for supper.

Aliza: What do you love about salmon fishing?

Gary: The challenge of it. It can actually be very difficult at times. I also like the time to reflect on during those long stretches of inaction. I take that time to learn bird songs, notice rocks that have moved since I visited that spot last summer, and reunite with friends. The best part is the sudden “pull,” when a salmon takes the fly and you experience the completely unpredictable behaviour of a salmon on the line.

Aliza: What was the largest salmon you have caught in the Nashwaak?

Gary: It was 18 pounds, caught at a little known (and secret!) pool near Stanley.

Aliza: What was your most memorable moment while fishing?

Gary: That would be the memory of my son catching his first salmon. Having me as a dad he said, “I guess I should let this salmon go” and I told him there are 2 reasons I accept for killing a salmon, if it is 24.5″-long male (and therefore not going to spawn) right at the end of a long fishing day, or if it is your first one and you want to take it home to show mom, Gary grins.

*note: this year the Department of Fisheries and Oceans instituted a catch-and release only policy for New Brunswick rivers.

Aliza: What concerns you most about the decline of the salmon population in NB and in the Nashwaak?

Gary: What concerns me most is the potential loss of our heritage and friendships that are closely tied to salmon fishing. I miss going to the pools on the Nashwaak or other rivers and meeting friends or making friends amongst the fisher people I would meet there. I am also concerned about the lost money to our local economy and the jobs associated with guiding and getting visitors out on the water. Also, they are a high quality and delicious food source!

Aliza: Do you feel that there is hope for the revival of the Nashwaak salmon population? Do you have thoughts on how we can improve this situation?

Gary: Absolutely there is hope. We saw a substantial recovery of the salmon in the Nashwaak in 2008-2011. In my humble opinion better regulation of the salmon aquaculture industry would bring an immediate and substantial recovery to the Nashwaak stocks. We are working hard on that file. There are other issues we have worked on in the past, but now that such things like our input to the Sisson mine project in the headwaters of the Nashwaak is complete and downstream fish passage at NB Power dams is started we will turn our attention to aquaculture. Salmon populations are very resilient and recover quickly when given a chance.

Aliza: What do groups like the Nashwaak Watershed Association do to help the salmon population on the Nashwaak?

Gary: A great deal! They provided excellent input to the Sisson mine Environmental Impact Assessment and have improved the design of the project by doing so. They also contributed to an independent 3rd party review of the mine’s bonding requirements, water treatment costs and plans, and the tailings dam design. This is good stuff! They also have created hatchery operations when the salmon population was at risk, helped get downstream passage in place on the St. John River (those dams do kill Nashwaak salmon even though they are not placed between the Nashwaak and the Bay of Fundy) and much more.

Nashwaak Salmon: 2014 numbers are in

August 7, 2015

The 2014 numbers of salmon returning to the Nashwaak from the ocean are in. One hundred and sixty-three grilse (salmon that winter over in the ocean for only one year) and 48 salmon (defined as having been overwintering in the ocean for multiple years). Last year didn’t look much better than the previous (2013) which saw the continued historic low of returns to the Nashwaak, and many other salmon rivers like the Miramichi.

Those of us who live along and play in the Nashwaak know this trend all too well. The Nashwaak River was once known for its abundance of salmon but over the years there has been a drastic population decrease in the river. In 1970, when the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans began tracking salmon returns, the adult salmon returning to the Nashwaak River were around 2000 and after a steady decline from the mid 1980’s the number of adult salmon bottomed out at 44 in 2012.

Our summer student, Aliza, asked Peter Salonius a few questions about what is going on. Peter is a past-president of NWAI and has been volunteering since our founding and has following the salmon decline for a long time.

Aliza: What do you think is causing the decline in salmon returning to the Nashwaak?

Peter: While production of juveniles in fresh water has been quite acceptable, the marine survival has been dismal.

Aliza: Hatcheries and rearing programs have been used as a solution for reversing the decline in salmon population, even in the Nashwaak, they have not really helped the salmon populations. Why is that so?

Peter: Hatcheries and rearing programs enhance numbers of salmon juveniles in freshwater (the river), however, when the fish migrate to the ocean to feed, they aren’t surviving and returning back to the river to spawn. Again, it is the marine environment that seems to be causing the problem.

Aliza: Can you elaborate on what you think is the problem is in the marine environment?

Peter: There are a number of factors that may be causing mortality in the ocean as the juveniles migrate to the North Atlantic feeding grounds, including a number of consequences of the intense salmon farming in the Bay of Fundy. Most concerning are the virus diseases present in salt water and the parasitic sea lice that harm farm productivity and infect wild salmon juveniles as they are passing through the area on their way out from the St. John River.

Sea lice usually attach themselves on the skin of salmon and feed off the mucus, blood and skin of salmon. Juvenile salmon are smaller and have not fully developed scales yet so when the sea lice attach themselves to their bodies, they are unable to cope and die.

Aliza: How can we solve the problem that you feel fish farm is contributing?

Peter: We should encourage and possibly subsidize the movement of the aquaculture industry to land and to locations where they will be raised in fresh water, away from net damaging storms, large net damaging animals such as seals, lethal cold water incidents, and the viruses and lice infestations.

Aliza: Do you feel that there is hope for the revival of the Nashwaak salmon population? Do you have thoughts on how we can improve this situation?

Peter: Salmon in the Nashwaak River actually began to recover when the aquaculture industry was able to control sea lice in the 2000s. As you can see on the graph, and the returning spawning salmon increased to over a 1000 annually from mid-2000’s to 2008. But, salmon declined again when the aquaculture industry began to lose control of sea lice starting in 2009. We can improve the situation again by learning from that lesson and moving salmon aquaculture out of salt water.

Aliza: Why do you think drawing attention to the salmon decline is so important?

Peter: Drawing attention to salmon is important as the salmon is a keystone species in the ecosystem. They influence the survival and reproduction of many other species. Salmon are the best coastal ecosystem health indicator as they are extremely sensitive to the changes in the water quality; food sources, and changes in the river flow, turbidity, and temperature. The health of salmon populations is a good indicator of how well we are taking care of the marine and terrestrial ecosystems. Salmon are also very important to the residents of the Nashwaak watershed and people care about what is happening and want to protect and restore the population here.

Early counts on the Miramichi River this year look positive and numbers are rebounding from last year’s low. We’ll be keeping an eye out on the Nashwaak in hopes that’s the case here too.

Stay tuned for another interview about the importance of Nashwaak River salmon, with resident and fly-fishrman Gary Spencer

Dismal Salmon Returns to the Nashwaak in 2012

December 3, 2012

As you inspect the grilse (1 sea winter fish) returns on the DFO web site you will see that grilse numbers were as low as 25% of 2004-2008 averages in many NB rivers, and this suggests that conditions were quite harsh (cold) in the Labrador Sea feeding grounds last winter.

While the marine environment was hard on fish from other NB rivers, the severity of the population decrease in the Saint John system was away out of proportion to that in other rivers with grilse numbers being 7% at Mactaquac and 4% on the Nashwaak of 2004- 2008 averages.

The crash of populations in the Saint John system in the mid 1990s was also much more severe than the declines experienced in the other NB rivers, and that “more severe decline” corresponded with the rapid rise of sea lice populations generated in Bay of Fundy salmon farms. [Read more…]