One-fish limit: Government releases salmon fishing regulations
Review will be conducted mid-season to set limits for end of year
Salmon fishers in this province will be allowed to catch and keep one salmon this season.
The rule applies for all rivers that currently allow fish retention, and it may be only a temporary limit.
The Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada will conduct a mid-season review to set the limits for the rest of the summer.
- 'Very desperate situation:' Salmon federation wants retention fishing of salmon stopped
- Catch-and-release notion spawns debate about 2018 salmon strategy
Anglers will also have to abide by a catch-and-release limit of three fish per day for all rivers in Newfoundland and Labrador.
The latest salmon stock assessment shocked scientists at DFO. It showed 80 per cent of rivers in the province had at least a 30 per cent decline in salmon population, compared with the average over the last five years.
DFO said it hadn't seen a similar decline since the commercial salmon moratorium in 1992.
Last August, DFO took the major step of declaring the salmon fishery catch-and-release only for the remainder of the season.