Atlantic salmon stocks up slightly but many rivers still in the 'critical zone'
Latest DFO assessment shows a few more salmon in Newfoundland, but some rivers are in serious decline
After two years of significant decline, Atlantic salmon numbers are up slightly — but there's still a long way to go.
"We don't see as many alarming declines as we have seen in the past two years. However, when you look at the abundance levels overall, they're not quite up to pre-2016 levels," said Nick Kelly, stock assessment biologist with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans.
The federal department today released the results of salmon returns to 22 rivers it monitored in 2018.
In 2016, half of the monitored rivers showed declines in salmon numbers over the previous five years. In 2017, 80 per cent of rivers showed declines. Last year, said Kelly, 31 per cent of rivers showed declines in salmon numbers. Data for the previous five years was not available for six of the rivers monitored in 2016.
But Atlantic salmon still have a long way to go before all populations are healthy.
Conne River on the south coast of Newfoundland is an area of particular concern.
Salmon returns there are the lowest in over 30 years, with fewer than one per cent of salmon returning to spawn.
Just 482 salmon returned in 2018, down from nearly 3,000 salmon 10 years previously, according to DFO statistics.
Fifty per cent of all rivers are in what DFO calls the "critical zone": salmon in these rivers aren't producing enough eggs to replace salmon caught or not returning to spawn.
Kelly said there were slight improvements to the stock in some rivers, "especially some of the rivers we monitor in southern Labrador, and then a couple on the Northern Peninsula and the northeast coast showed abundance estimates for last year that were higher than 2016 and 2017."
Those rivers include English River in Labrador as well as Western Arm Brook on the Great Northern Peninsula and Campbellton River in Notre Dame Bay.
Current rules for the coming season will allow anglers to catch one salmon for the season. Anglers are allowed to catch and release up to three salmon a day.