126 



FISHERY BULLETIN OF THE FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE 



Enough salmon to yield a supply of eggs for 

 artificial hatching continued to enter the lower 

 Merrimac up to 1893 and there seems to have been 

 what almost might be described as a run there in 

 1896, when salmon were seen leaping below the 

 Lawrence dam nearly every day from June 10th 

 to July 25th, often 10 or 20 at a time, and a few 

 were lifted over. But we have not learned of a 

 single sea-run salmon seen in the Merrimac since 

 1901, though watch has been kept for them by the 

 wardens of the Massachusetts Division of Fish- 

 eries and Game," and it is not likely that salmon 

 would still run in the Penobscot were it not for the 

 artificial propagation that is carried on there by 

 the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service. But the sal- 

 mon situation now shows signs of improvement, 

 for the run in the St. Croix has increased; salmon 

 have reestablished themselves in the Narraguagus 

 and provide sport there for many anglers since 

 one obstructing dam has washed out and another 

 opened. Enough salmon run regularly in the 

 Dennys to attract anglers and a few also in the 

 Machias and Pleasant Rivers. The Fisheries Com- 

 mission of the State of Maine, and the U. S. 

 Fish and Wildlife Service, are now concerned with 

 the possibility of improving the runs in these 

 streams, and of reestablishing runs of salmon in 

 other Maine rivers. 



Along the Canadian shores of our Gulf a few 

 salmon still run in the Tusket, Salmon, and An- 

 napolis Rivers; many in the Shubenacadie River 

 in Nova Scotia, some in the Petitcodiac, and 

 great numbers in the St. John River in New 

 Brunswick, which still is a famous salmon river. 



Movements in the Gulf.- — After the smolts reach 

 salt water they are found for a time in the river 

 mouths and about estuaries. No doubt the little 

 salmon (too small to sell) that are caught in sum- 

 mer and autumn in weirs at Matinicus Island 

 have come from the Penobscot a month or two 

 previous. They drop out of sight in winter, as 

 do the older and larger salmon as well. But 

 there is no reason to suppose that many of them 

 go far out to sea in the Gulf. Odd salmon 

 stray, it is true, as much as 90 to 100 miles sea- 

 ward off the outer coast of Nova Scotia, 70 while 



otter trawlers pick up odd salmon from time to 

 time in the South Channel, and even on Georges 

 Bank up to 160 miles or more at sea from Cape 

 Cod. 71 But the great majority of the salmon 

 that are caught in the Gulf are taken within 25 

 miles of the land. 



The Gulf of Maine salmon also appear to con- 

 tinue rather closely localized as a whole, not only 

 within the coastal belt, but within the zone of 

 fresh-water influence from the particular rivers or 

 river systems from which they come. So few, for 

 example, are caught near Cape Sable that there 

 can be no general movement around the Cape by 

 the fish that spawn in the rivers of the outer coast 

 of Nova Scotia. Most of the fish that go to sea 

 via Minas Channel from the Shubenacadie, and 

 the few from smaller streams that discharge into 

 Minas Basin, seem to remain along the Nova Scotia 

 shore within a distance of 30 to 40 miles to the 

 westward. And while tagging experiments have 

 proved that some of them scatter more widely; i. e. 

 to Cobequid Bay, to the estuary of the St. John 

 River, to the Annapolis Basin, and to St. Mary's 

 Bay, few of them leave the Bay of Fundy 72 (for 

 some that did, see p. 127). 



The much more numerous salmon from the St. 

 John appear to hold rather closely to the tongue of 

 low salinity that extends westerly from the mouth 

 of the river, keeping out from the shore, for hardly 

 any salmon are caught either on the New Bruns- 

 wick shore to the eastward, except for a few near 

 the head of the Bay (doubtless the product of the 

 Chignecto Bay river system) or farther west than 

 Point Lepreau, or around Grand Manan Island 

 which stands directly in the route of any fish mov- 

 ing westward out of the northern side of the Bay of 

 Fundy. Thus it appears that a radius of, say, 40 

 to 50 miles would enclose the wanderings of most of 

 the St. John River fish. 



The evident failure of salmon from the St. John 

 to follow the myriads of sardine sized herring into 

 Passamaquoddy Bay is especially interesting. The 

 weirs there pick up a few salmon, the presence 

 of which can be credited to the small run in the St. 

 Croix River. And the numbers of salmon that are 

 caught thence westward along the coast of Maine 73 



89 A few small "salmon" reported of late in the Merrimac probably were 

 the landlocked form, running down from tributaries stocked with this fish. 



"> Three reports of salmon caught on Western Bank have appeared in the 

 daily press since 1925 to our knowledge, and Kendall (Mem. Boston Soc. Nat. 

 Hist., vol, 9, No. 1, 1935, p. 33) reports one caught on La Have Bank 100 

 miles from Halifax, and another 60 miles off Cape Sable. 



" Kendall (Mem. Boston Soc. Nat. Hist., vol. 9, No. 1, 1935, pp. 31-33) lists 

 a number of such cases. 



» Huntsman, Ann. Rept. Fish. Res. Board Canada, (1947) 194S, p. 37, and 

 unpublished notes. 



1 The average was only 3,000 pounds (perhaps 300 fish) for the years 1939, 

 1940, 1943, 1944. Statistics are not readily available for 1941 and 1942. 



