Roy Kirk "Another option, she said, is to release "not reproductively viable" salmon, equipped with acoustic tags, at sea to assess movement and mortality. === Good science, perhaps, but unlikely to show immediate improvements in the fishing of the Laird of the Manor. I recall seeing reports of studies done many years ago that indicated that hatchery-raised fish had high mortality due to predation, the fish not being exposed to it during their early years of life and therefore not prepared to evade predators.
Turn the existing crops into fishmeal, then start over, this time getting voluntary agreement on the project rather than assuming you can get it by bullying. David Amos
Reply to @Roy Kirk: There was no bullying Methinks everybody knows this project was funded both federally and provincially in 2016 N'esy Pas?
Stephen Robertson Did DFO,among others , not run salmon hatcheries around New Brunswick for many YEARS? There appears to be more here than meets the eye?
David Amos
Reply to @Stephen Robertson: I wholeheartedly agree Sir
David Amos Methinks folks should ask the obvious why is the government going against a plan of their buddies in the Irving Clan N'esy Pas?
Ben Haroldson
Reply to @David Amos: And at the same time allowing glyphosate spraying...
David Amos Reply to @Ben Haroldson: Methinks the Irving Clan and some political people would understand why I just made a few calls N'esy Pas?
Atlantic Salmon Recovery Program Gains Government Support
Not-for-profit organization to address decline of wild Atlantic salmon
November 05, 2016 - Miramichi, NB
Collaboration for Atlantic Salmon Tomorrow Inc. (CAST) will soon be implementing its program to improve Atlantic salmon stocks in the Miramichi and Restigouche rivers, thanks to investments of more than $4.7 million from the federal and provincial governments.
Pat Finnigan, Member of Parliament for Miramichi – Grand Lake, and the Honourable Bill Fraser, Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure and Minister responsible for the Northern and Miramichi Funds, today joined CAST representatives and industry stakeholders to make the funding announcement.
The funding will help CAST implement the first phase of a comprehensive Atlantic Salmon Recovery Program, which includes three innovative research projects. The program’s success could have widespread benefits, potentially serving as a model to help replenish stocks in other Atlantic Canadian and eastern North American rivers that have been gradually declining for 50 years, including regions where the species has been listed as endangered.
The Government of Canada is providing a non-repayable contribution of up to $2,457,257 through ACOA’s Business Development Program while the Province of New Brunswick is investing up to $2,300,000 through the Miramichi Regional Economic Development and Innovation Fund for the project.
This important project builds on the Government of Canada’s commitment to drive economic growth in Atlantic Canada through innovation as announced in July 2016 as part of the Atlantic Growth Strategy.
Quotes “The Atlantic salmon recreational fishery in the Miramichi River is a multi-million dollar industry that attracts thousands of visitors from around the world. This investment is an example of the Government of Canada’s commitment to build on competitive regional advantages by supporting research to help this economically significant fishery remain healthy for future generations.”
- Honourable Navdeep Bains, Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development and Minister responsible for ACOA
“The Government of Canada is pleased to support CAST and its innovative research in an effort to help increase the number of Atlantic salmon returning to our rivers. The economic benefits of this project will extend well beyond the immediate fisheries research jobs being created, as a healthy Atlantic salmon population will help draw an increasing number of tourists to the entire region.”
- Pat Finnigan, MP for Miramichi-Grand Lake
“Your government understands what matters to New Brunswickers. We know how important creating jobs, growing the economy, and securing health care and education are to New Brunswickers and their families. We are proud to partner in this most important research project as salmon fishing contributes to our provincial economy by creating jobs, expenditures on food and beverages, transportation, accommodations, guiding and other tourism related spending.”
- Honourable Bill Fraser, Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure and Minister responsible for the Northern and Miramichi Funds
“We thank ACOA and the Province of New Brunswick for their support of the CAST research initiative, a science-based team effort to save wild Atlantic salmon. Today’s funding contributions are vital to preserving and growing wild Atlantic salmon populations for generations to come.”
- Brian Moore, President, CAST Quick Facts • CAST is a unique collaboration of industry leaders, conservation groups and scientists that was created in 2015 to address salmon conservation in New Brunswick. • One research project will use remote sensing technology to better understand global climate change, warming water conditions and their impact on wild Atlantic salmon. • Sonar technology will be used in a second project to more accurately determine the number of out-migrating juvenile salmon and returning adult salmon to compare with previous data. • The Adult Salmon Release Program is a project that involves converting an existing facility near Miramichi to rear wild smolts in captivity, in order to provide enough mature adults to release into rivers with low populations. • Atlantic salmon is currently on the endangered species list in the United States, the Bay of Fundy and the Atlantic coast of Nova Scotia.
Atlantic salmon recovery program receives federal and provincial funding
05 November 2016
MIRAMICHI (GNB) – Collaboration for Atlantic Salmon Tomorrow (CAST) will soon be implementing its program to improve Atlantic salmon stocks in the Miramichi and Restigouche rivers, thanks to investments of more than $4.7 million from the provincial and federal governments.
“Your government understands how important creating jobs, growing the economy and securing health care and education are to New Brunswickers and their families,” said Transportation and Infrastructure Minister Bill Fraser, who is also minister responsible for the Northern and Miramichi Funds. “We are proud to partner in this most important research project. Salmon fishing contributes to our provincial economy by creating jobs through expenditures on food and beverages, transportation, accommodations, guiding and other tourism-related spending.”
The funding will help the organization implement the first phase of a comprehensive Atlantic Salmon Recovery Program, which includes three research projects.
“The federal government is pleased to support CAST and its innovative research in an effort to help increase the number of Atlantic salmon returning to our rivers,” said Miramichi-Grand Lake MP Pat Finnigan. “The economic benefits of this project will extend well beyond the immediate fisheries research jobs being created, as a healthy Atlantic salmon population will help draw an increasing number of tourists to the entire region.”
Finnigan attended the event for federal Innovation, Science and Economic Development Minister Navdeep Bains, who is also the minister responsible for the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency (ACOA).
The provincial government is investing up to $2.3 million in the project through the Miramichi Regional Economic Development and Innovation Fund. The federal government is providing a non-repayable contribution of up to $2,457,257 through ACOA’s Business Development Program.
If successful, the program could have widespread benefits, potentially serving as a model to help replenish stocks in other Atlantic Canadian and eastern North American rivers that have been gradually declining for 50 years, including regions where the species has been listed as endangered.
“We thank ACOA and the provincial government for their support of the CAST research initiative, a science-based team effort to save wild Atlantic salmon,” said Brian Moore, president of Collaboration for Atlantic Salmon Tomorrow. “Today’s funding contributions are vital to preserving and growing wild Atlantic salmon populations for generations to come.”
05-11-16
Atlantic salmon recovery program receives federal and provincial funding
Collaboration for Atlantic Salmon Tomorrow (CAST) will soon be implementing its program to improve Atlantic salmon stocks in the Miramichi and Restigouche rivers, thanks to investments of more than $4.7 million from the provincial and federal governments. From left: Kent North MLA Bertrand LeBlanc; Transportation and Infrastructure Minister Bill Fraser, who is also minister responsible for the Northern and Miramichi Funds; Miramichi-Grand Lake MP Pat Finnigan; Seniors and Long-Term Care Minister Lisa Harris; and Brian Moore, president of CAST.
Media Contact(s)
Bruce Macfarlane, communications, Regional Development Corporation, 506-444-4377. Lisa Gautreau, communications, Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, 506-471-1565. Shirley Roach-Albert, executive director, Collaboration for Atlantic Salmon Tomorrow, 506-651-0362.
Research Efforts to Improve Wild Atlantic Salmon Stocks in New Brunswick Receive Major Funding Boost
November 30, 2016:
Miramichi, NB: The Government of Canada and the Province of New Brunswick have partnered with the Collaboration for Atlantic Salmon Tomorrow (CAST) with a combined total of $4.7 million in research funding.
Read the federal and provincial government news releases here or here.
CAST is a unique collaboration of industry leaders, conservation groups, and scientists that was created in 2015 to address salmon conservation in New Brunswick. Its focus is to save the wild Atlantic salmon before it’s too late.
Federal and provincial representatives and stakeholders attend the funding announcement in Miramichi, N.B. Saturday. A total of $4.7 million will be used to help save wild Atlantic salmon in the Miramichi and Restigouche rivers. From left, MLA Bertrand LeBlanc, Minister Bill Fraser, MP Pat Finnigan, MLA Lisa Harris and CAST president, Brian Moore.
J.D. Irving, Limited (JDI) is a founding partner and proud contributor to this multi-year effort to reverse the decline of wild Atlantic salmon populations.
JDI is supporting one of the six CAST science projects currently underway: ARIS Sonar Population Tracking - new underwater sonar technology in Blackville, NB which accurately counts the number of returning salmon, providing real on-time data about salmon populations in the Miramichi.
“With everyone working together we will be successful," said Jim Irving, Co-CEO, J.D. Irving, Limited. “Our objective is to have the salmon populations return to their former levels of productivity, which will not only enhance the fishing experience and help the economy of rural New Brunswick, but most of all provide the right environment for a healthy salmon population.”
Under the CAST plan, wild Atlantic salmon were captured as smolts and raised to adults in a hatchery. The federal government won't let CAST return the fish to the Miramchi River to spawn, citing concerns they might weaken the salmon population. (CBC)
For the third year in a row, federal fisheries officials have denied a New Brunswick company permission to release thousands of hatchery-raised adult salmon into the Miramichi River.
Department of Fisheries and Oceans scientists and a non-profit company called CAST have been at odds since 2017 over the merits of the restocking plan, which got underway with the capture of several thousand three-year-old salmon smolts that were then raised to adulthood in large tanks in a hatchery.
CAST, backed by J.D. Irving Ltd. co-CEO Jim Irving, wants to return the hatchery-raised fish to the river in the same place they were captured to allow them to spawn.
But in a letter to CAST dated Aug. 8 and obtained by CBC News, Sylvie Lapointe, the assistant deputy fisheries minister, said the department, while committed to Atlantic salmon conservation, continues to believe the Miramichi is not the place for this "experiment."
One of several full-page CAST ads in daily newspapers, pressuring Canada's Department of Fisheries and Oceans to approve the controversial adult stocking program for the Miramichi. (Telegraph Journal Newspaper)
CAST, which stands for Collaboration for Atlantic Salmon Tomorrow, describes itself as a partnership devoted to salmon research and recovery. Glenn Cooke, CEO of Cooke Aquaculture, and Saint John businessman Brian Moore are directors, along with Irving.
CAST is collaborating with the Miramichi Salmon Association and has provided funding to the University of New Brunswick's Canadian Rivers Institute, which is also a key research partner.
DFO pressured for go-ahead
Lapointe and her staff have been under tremendous political and public pressure to give CAST a green light for its project.
In the weeks preceding the posting of the letter, DFO and its Moncton and Ottawa staff, were targeted in a series of full-page, front-section ads in the Telegraph-Journal and other Irving-owned daily newspapers.
The ads, placed by CAST, have dismissed staff at Fisheries and Oceans as "bureaucrats," with no plan to reverse the decline of wild Atlantic salmon in the Miramichi River system.
They accuse the federal department and the Atlantic Salmon Association — a long-established conservation group — of working together to block CAST's marquee project, known as "smolt to adult supplementation," or SAS.
Salmon numbers in the river system have declined in recent years. Returns numbered just 27,000 in 2018, well below conservation levels.
CAST works with scientists
A recent CAST newspaper ad claimed the project had assembled the "largest team of research scientists in Canada to address the decline of Miramichi salmon."
Both Fisheries and Oceans and the Atlantic Salmon Federation maintain the population overall is not yet at crisis levels, and there is no need for potentially very risky interventions.
But it's the science behind the project and a lack of consultation with First Nations that most concern federal officials
Lapointe's letter cites, among other records, a 2016 DFO report that refers to "adaptive genetic changes" that can occur rapidly, even within a single generation, to fish raised in an artificial environment.
"DFO has a responsibility to consider all the benefits and risks of this type of work on the wild Atlantic salmon population," Lapointe said.
First Nations have concerns
First Nations groups in the Miramichi area are also opposed to the stocking plan, citing a lack of consultation with them and similar concerns about potential genetic effects on wild fish.
Copies of Lapointe's letter were sent to James Irving, Glenn Cooke, Brian Moore, New Brunswick's members of Parliament, all provincial MLAs, and Premier Blaine Higgs, who has advocated at senior levels for the CAST project in Ottawa.
The Fisheries and Oceans decision raises questions about the fate of as many as 13,000 captive adult salmon now being held in the South Esk hatchery.
Jim Irving, co-ceo of J.D. Irving Ltd. is listed as a director of CAST, along with Glenn Cooke of Cooke Seafood and businessman Brian Moore. (Youtube)
Lapointe suggests the salmon could be useful for experiments on thermal tolerance and recovery.
Another option, she said, is to release "not reproductively viable" salmon, equipped with acoustic tags, at sea to assess movement and mortality.
In an email statement to CBC, the executive director of CAST said he was "very disappointed" the department doesn't support the project, and he accused it of showing no "real leadership."
"Currently, there are no legitimate scientists opposed to the CAST SAS plan, and many are actually very supportive," said Andrew Willett, who is also a manager with J.D. Irving.
Willett did not respond to questions about the future of the stocking plan or what will now happen to the fish being held in the South Esk hatchery.
But Willett said the government's position "defies common sense," so CAST will regroup to find a way forward for the project.
