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We’ve been having cool mornings, but still very little rain.
Notably, the Margaree River in Cape Breton is still closed, but a lot of rivers have re-opened.
As we move into the spawning season — the time when salmon make their final moves upriver to their spawning grounds — the lack of water is a concern.
ASF’s Vice-President of Research and Environment, Valérie Ouellet, has been getting a lot of media requests about this lately.
“Fish don’t walk,” she said. “Depending on the river, of course, some are already close to their spawning ground. But there are some that are not, and they’re going to move. And if there’s not enough water, they cannot do that.”
The big question is how extreme has this weather actually been.
“It is definitely unusual,” Valérie said. “We see it at some water level measuring stations. Some of them are showing all-time lows.”
We do need to wait for these unusual conditions to be over before anyone can place this year into historical context.
“It’s not that we need more data,” Valérie said. “We just need the event to end, so then we can crunch the stats and look at it to see if that was more extreme or prolonged than other years.”
Everyone is watching the forecast, and hoping for a long period of rain, before most of the rivers close. In the meantime, we’re still getting reports of people getting out on the water and finding fish.
In this week’s Rivernotes, we have a submission from a 100 year-old angler who caught a salmon in northern New Brunswick. Reports of higher than expected grilse returns also continue to come in. Some rivers are also recording lower than expected temperatures, with healthy-looking populations of adult and juvenile salmon.
There is also a lot of good news from conservation and restoration projects, with two new bridge construction projects completed in Maine, radio tracking receivers providing data, and a series of projects getting started in Newfoundland and Labrador.
ASF’s Research team looks back on August, and provides some updates, and insights, on their activities. Ellen Mansfield, ASF’s Research and Environment Office Manager, writes:
“August brought about a great number of challenges for the Research Team. The hot and humid weather that just wouldn’t quit. No rain, causing rivers to become lower and warmer, creating stress for the fish. Forest fires in the Miramichi region, restricting access to rivers and work sites. We thank all the fire fighters fighting these terrible fires.”
Valérie Ouellet, ASF’s Vice-President of Research and Environment, writes:
“The Maine team went to look at different habitats in the Sandy River Watershed. We found large adults holding in a large pool, healthy-looking juvenile salmon, and Brook trout — always exciting to see! Although water levels are low in the Sandy, some of its tributaries still had a good amount of water, since a significant portion of the water comes from springs and groundwater inputs. It was also really interesting to check the water temperatures, which were 21-22 °C overall. Given that this is a river at the southern range of Atlantic salmon distribution, and that the same week we heard about rivers in NB being close to 30 °C , this really highlights the importance of cold water inputs to keep salmon habitats cold and clean.”
“l also visited one of the Bangor YMCA classrooms to talk about wild salmon in Maine, ensuring that kids are aware of the importance of wild Atlantic salmon in the state. We talked about their fascinating life cycle and what they eat. We drew a salmon and also did a salmon dance. It is vital to keep the next generation connected to rivers and salmon. The kids definitely had a lot of questions, and I still get some when picking up my kids from daycare!”
Ellen has been doing her magic, keeping research operations running smoothly and visiting the fishway on the Magaguadavic River to look for potential aquaculture escapees. If there are some escapees, Ellen dissects them to collect data so we can look at their genetic profile and their general health.
Graham Chafe, an ASF Biologist, has been busy retrieving radio tracking receivers on the Miramichi and in the Baie des Chaleurs in northern New Brunswick, as well as attending an interesting workshop. He writes:
“ASF, jointly with GINU and SCAS, held a Thermal Infrared Imagery (TIR) workshop in Fredericton. The two-day workshop gave an overview of the technologies available to collect TIR and essential information about processing as well as application. The workshop — well attended by staff and ASF’s affiliates, including attendees from the West Coast — aims to create a community of TIR users, covering everything from acquisition to using such information.”
“Heather and I were occupied with receivers and project take downs. Heather has completed some radio tracking work on the Miramichi and was taking down the project with help from students with the Canadian Rivers Institute at UNB. There was a fair bit of gear and it took several days to complete. She’ll now move on to the analysis portion of that project.
Meanwhile, I was on both branches of the Miramichi where we took many very short kayak trips to download data from what we call our ‘upstream’ receivers. These are the acoustic receivers that detect passing tags and are placed upstream of the heads of tide on each branch. At each placement, we’d throw the kayak in the water, paddle at most 150m, download the receiver and re-deploy it. They’re being left in the water until November as there are many tagged stripers in the system and these positions may show some of their movements. One of the upstream receivers, at Kingston Lane, was not found, so if you’re out and about and find anything that has the ASF name on and some contact info, please let us know.”
“Both Heather and I made our way up to the Baie des Chaleurs where we searched for a few hard-to-find receivers on our line there. Usually we’re out on a lobster boat, with tons of gear, to roll over the line for another year. But this time, we had our ASF skiff as we were just looking to recover.
It was an incredible day out, warm with low winds and basically flat water that made for good conditions to be on big water in a small boat. We discovered that while you can’t attract a whale, you sure can get them to go away just by pulling out a camera. Every single time. After eight hours on the water, the winds began to build and we made our way back to the wharf. We bumped into a local who already knew about our project, the basics at least. It’s nice to see that the good folks in the area know what we’re about and will keep an eye out for stray gear or problems with our line.”
Jeff Reardon, a Project Manager with ASF, submitted a report on the completion of two river restoration projects. He writes:
“ASF’s Headwaters Program in Maine wrapped up the summer construction season with completion of two new bridges in the Pleasant River watershed. These open up access from the Middle Branch Pleasant River into Bog Brook, a cold tributary full of brook trout that was — until this summer — blocked by an impassable culvert just above its mouth, and Sucker Brook, a tributary to the West Branch with a culvert that blocked access to and from Sucker Brook Pond. The two projects together restored access to 9.1 miles of stream containing 101 units of rearing habitat for juvenile Atlantic salmon. The Sucker Brook site also reconnects the West Branch Pleasant to Sucker Brook Pond for alewife.
These projects wrap up 3 years of work on lands within the Appalachian Mountain Club’s Maine Woods property, over 120,000 acres including almost all the watersheds of the West Branch and Middle Branch Pleasant River Watersheds that AMC manages for habitat conservation, recreation, and sustainable forestry. With these projects, all of the culverts on AMC roads in the Middle Branch and West Branch Pleasant watersheds now meet “Stream-Smart” standards for fish passage, stream function, and flood flows, enhancing habitat for Atlantic salmon, brook trout, and other native fish and improving resilience of a road network critical for public access and the local economy.
In addition to AMC, key partners on these projects included Piscataquis County, the town of Brownville, and North Maine Woods, who manages public access to the road network and campsites. Funding came from the NOAA Fisheries, the US Fish and Wildlife Service, the Maine Department of Transportation, and several private donors.”
Jennifer Knoll, a Marine Resource Scientist with Maine Department of Marine Resources Bureau of Sea Run Fisheries and Habitat, has reports from the Lower Mainstem Kennebec and the Lower Mainstem Androscoggin River, where they are also facing cool, but dry weather. She writes:
“Recently the continuing notable conditions have been the cooling temperatures (even dipping into the 40’s at night) and the severe drought conditions that we’re experiencing in area despite the inch of rain that the region got last Friday. The low discharge for the week dipped to 1,520 cfs and the high peaked at 4,950 cfs. Currently the river flow is at 1,940 cfs, which falls out as the lowest discharge recorded at this site on this date (https://waterdata.usgs.gov, based on 39 years of data).
Lockwood fish lift, located in Waterville, ME at the first dam on the mainstem Kennebec River, opened on May 1st for the 2025 season. The trap has been operational the entire week. Fifty-nine new Atlantic salmon have been captured to date; the first two arrived on 5/30. We’ve had a few special appearances so far this year – one wild female 3 sea-winter (89cm) on 6/8 and one wild female long absence repeat spawner (84.5cm) on 6/11. The water temperature has been finally cool enough to run below the handling threshold for salmon all week. One new hatchery-origin grilse showed up since the last report.
Brunswick fishway, located in Brunswick, ME on the mainstem Androscoggin River, was opened May 1st this year. Flow conditions have been dry this past week in the lower Androscoggin River as well, reaching a low of 870 cfs and a high of 1,580 cfs. Currently, the river flow is at 979 cfs, which falls between the minimum discharge level (490 cfs) and the 25th percentile discharge of 1,945 cfs (https://waterdata.usgs.gov, based on 96 years of data). The first Atlantic salmon at Brunswick in 2025 showed up on 6/13.
This week, Kris Hunter, ASF’s Regional Director for Wild Salmon Watersheds, and Jordan Condon, ASF’s Wild Salmon Watersheds Science Coordinator arrived in Newfoundland and Labrador. Kris writes:
“Jordan and I arrived back on the Rock with a literal boat load (and truck load) of gear in anticipation of a busy few weeks on the Terra Nova with Kim Thompson, ASF’s Newfoundland and Labrador Program Director, and our partners, Freshwater – Alexander Bays Ecosystem Corporation (FABEC).
We are out this week working hard to conduct electrofishing surveys on Maccles Brook, the Terra Nova mainstem, and on some of the tributaries/ponds that flow into Terra Nova Lake. These surveys are part of our Wild Salmon Watersheds assessment work with FABEC. They will be used to help us map juvenile productivity throughout the watershed and link it to other life stages such as smolt productivity and adult returns. By knowing where our juvenile productivity is (and where it isn’t) we will be able to better guide our restoration, protection, and advocacy actions, especially when we compare these productivity maps to habitat, water quality, land-use, and accessibility maps.”
Kris and Jordan are also preparing to install interesting monitoring equipment on the Terra Nova river. Kris writes:
“In addition to the electrofishing work we are also gearing up to install a brand new RiverWatcher system on the fish ladder at Big Falls on the Terra Nova. A RiverWatcher system is a camera and infrared sensor apparatus that can accurately count free swimming fish. This installation will be only the second of its kind in Eastern Canada. Central Queens Wildlife and the PEI Watershed Alliance beat us out when they installed the first one earlier this summer on the West River near Bonshaw, PEI. The RiverWatcher is also part of our Wild Salmon Watershed plans on the Terra Nova. Since much of the Terra Nova is remote and inaccessible, we are using adult movements to have the salmon tell us what parts of the river are currently important from their perspective. A combination of fish tagging, tracking work, and counting facilities is being used to glean this information. This too will factor into our picture of what is important for protection, and what needs to be addressed within the system. While we are in Terra Nova we are also hoping to do some bathymetry work, habitat assessments, planning for future counting facilities, and some drone work.
In addition to all this fieldwork and support we are providing for FABEC, we are also all working to prepare for the 3rd Annual Wild Salmon Watershed Network meeting. At this meeting we will bring together ASF staff and all the program partners to discuss how to further advance the program and do even better work for Atlantic Salmon and the communities and ecosystems on which they depend. The WSW Network meeting will be held from Sept 14th-16th in Glovertown, NL on the banks of the Terra Nova River. An exciting development is that this year we will be opening the last day up to other organizations from across the province to highlight the good work we are accomplishing, but also to talk about regional conservation and research priorities. It is going to be a thrilling couple of days, especially thanks to Kim and to our hosts, FABEC, who are working hard to not only ensure we have productive meetings but also that we have a fun and memorable time here in NL. Stay tuned for what could possibly be the first ever salmon conservation square dance pictures!!”
ASF’s President, Nathan Wilbur, and ASF’s Vice President of US Operations, John Burrows, were recently able to spend some time on the Flowers River in Labrador.
This week, ASF’s New Brunswick Program Director, David Roth, provides us with an update on the river conditions in the province. He has some good news, and the start of a concerning trend. He writes:
“Since our last report, many anglers have taken advantage of the reopened rivers, and we’ve received plenty of encouraging news of grilse and salmon being caught across the province. The positive trend noted by anglers and outfitters earlier in the season is continuing, making this an excellent time to target a beautiful fall-run fish.”
“With salmon in the rivers, the key ingredient now is higher water levels to help fish access prime spawning habitat in the headwaters. In most New Brunswick rivers, peak spawning begins in mid-October, so we still have a few weeks to hope for the heavy rain events needed to provide that long-awaited boost in water levels.”
Unfortunately, not all recent reports have been good news. Several anglers have encountered significant numbers of smallmouth bass in different sections of the river. ASF’s New Brunswick Program Director, David, spoke with Mark O’Donnell, who landed 16 smallmouth bass in Square Pool at Rocky Bend Camp in August alone. He also connected with Dillon Munn, who caught four smallmouths near Blissfield in recent weeks and noted that others had reported similar experiences.
“We remind the public that smallmouth bass are an invasive species in the Miramichi system. Please do not release any smallmouth bass you catch. Instead, report the catch location to DFO at 1-866-759-6600.
Finally, mark your calendars for another important event: the upcoming auction of New Brunswick angling leases. The last auction was held in 2013, making this a rare and noteworthy opportunity. More details can be found here: NB Angling Leases Auction.”
Livingston Parsons III submitted some photos and a short story about his 100 year-old-father, and former ASF Board Member, who landed a salmon on the Upsalquitch river. He writes:
“At 100 years of age, Dr. Livingston (“Livy”) Parsons, Jr. a former Board Member of the Atlantic Salmon Federation U.S. and former chair of ASF’s Research Committee, returned to Boland Brook Camp (“BBC”) to fish this summer and landed (and released) two Atlantic salmon. Dr. Parsons has been fishing New Brunswick’s Upsalquitch river since 1938, with only a few brief hiatuses for army service and the births of his children. Livy enjoys fishing for salmon and other anadromous species in Iceland, Maritime Canada, Russia’s Ponoi river, Tierra del Fuego and Kamchatka (Russia). Livy penned the story of Boland Brook Camp in 2004 book “Salmon Camp: The Boland Brook Story – 65 years of Angling on the Upsalquitch River.”
