Maine Salmon Want Extra Assist

Atlantic salmon in Maine are in bother, which isn’t big information. However Trout Limitless claims that current efforts to assist these endangered fish don’t go far sufficient.

In a weblog put up for TU, Mark Taylor makes the case that the present proposals into account don’t do sufficient to assist the Atlantic salmon, particularly on Maine’s Kennebec River. 4 dams blocking the Kennebec are both up for relicensing or license amendments, which suggests the Federal Power Regulatory Fee (FERC) that regulates these dams has to assessment new Environmental Impression Statements (EIS). When a draft EIS is submitted for assessment, it provides the general public the chance to touch upon the proposals, which is the place the method at present stands for the dams on the Kennebec.

Taylor writes that TU, together with “greater than 3,000 involved residents added their names and voices to the hassle, talking at public hearings in Could and signing petitions calling for fish passage enhancements.” Each TU and people residents contend that the Atlantic salmon safety measures within the present EIS don’t go far sufficient to protect the endangered species. At a minimal, TU want to see enhancements together with “requiring bypass channels and/or two fish lifts at every dam, in addition to screens with 3/4-inch openings above generators to guard out-migrating eels.”

TU isn’t being unreasonable in its requires higher help for Atlantic salmon, in line with Taylor. Keith Curley, TU vp for Japanese Conservation, mentioned that the present fish passage proposals within the draft EIS have failed on different rivers. Taylor quotes him as saying “The plan ought to be a full restoration. The plan ought to be restoring sturdy Atlantic salmon runs and thriving populations of co-evolved species like American eel…We have now to do extra.”

That extra contains full elimination of all dams, in line with the Nationwide Marine Fisheries Service, who commented on the draft EIS that “elimination of the decrease Kennebec River dams is the one different that may full get rid of results that may in any other case happen on account of their continued existence.”

For his or her half, Maine officers mentioned they need to see “options for fish passage which are fairly sure to work.”

Curley says these options have been tried on different rivers in Maine, and confirmed to not work.