02-19-2008, 05:10 PM
QUISPAMSIS - Mud is piling up near the Hammond River, salmon eggs are suffocating, and southern New Brunswick is in danger of losing the iconic fish on its environmental licence plates, an angling group says.
"If it was Siberian tigers that were about to disappear from our backyard, that would be another topic of interest," said Sandy MacKay, acting executive director of the Hammond River Angling Association.
"Salmon are a remarkable and indigenous species and we're in threat of losing them in this part of New Brunswick."
Recent experiments carried out by the conservation group found no survivors among salmon eggs planted in Palmer Brook, a tributary that meets the river near the association's Conservation Centre.
In other Hammond River tributaries, the survival rate was about half.
The likely reason for the difference?
Dirt.
Water samples showed "very high" levels of sediment in 2007. Calls to the association and the Department of the Environment were both up last year as the brook ran brown, MacKay said.
The angling association official didn't want to place blame because of legal reasons, but said the area includes "industrial parks, some gravel pits," and some potential residential development.
Some people are not following the rules, MacKay said. The pollution "could be from sites two kilometres away if you've got a piece of bare ground and that bare ground is allowing soil to leach into the stream."
The association is working with landowners and the government to create a "Palmer Brook Salmon Sanctuary," which would include a map to keep the location of buffer areas clear. A "green line" would show the areas where development needs to be monitored by the government. Work has been started by the Department of the Environment, the Town of Quispamsis, and the association, MacKay said.
MacKay says Palmer Brook is vitally important because the pond at its head is the first freshwater pool that returning salmon rest in after the 6,000-kilometre swim home from Greenland.
As many as 50 salmon rest in that pool at one time, which is why the first 200 metres of the brook are protected from any fishing, not just the salmon fishing that is banned throughout the St. John River system, which includes Hammond River.
"This sedimentation is not only covering over the eggs, but it's moving downstream and starting to in-fill this pool," MacKay said.
Salmon are creatures of habit, MacKay says, so if the pool changes too much the fish may continue upstream to find another pool, one not so cold and therefore oxygen-rich as the Palmer Brook pool, which connects with a number of springs.
MacKay's opinion why Hammond River has the only viable, self-sustaining salmon population in the region is this "excellent cold-water refuge," which is 15 to 20 metres across, 50 metres in length, and three to four metres deep.
More testing will be done on the brook this month and next, and the association will continue public outreach, MacKay said.
"We want people to recognize this is a vital salmon stream," he said.
"If it was Siberian tigers that were about to disappear from our backyard, that would be another topic of interest," said Sandy MacKay, acting executive director of the Hammond River Angling Association.
"Salmon are a remarkable and indigenous species and we're in threat of losing them in this part of New Brunswick."
Recent experiments carried out by the conservation group found no survivors among salmon eggs planted in Palmer Brook, a tributary that meets the river near the association's Conservation Centre.
In other Hammond River tributaries, the survival rate was about half.
The likely reason for the difference?
Dirt.
Water samples showed "very high" levels of sediment in 2007. Calls to the association and the Department of the Environment were both up last year as the brook ran brown, MacKay said.
The angling association official didn't want to place blame because of legal reasons, but said the area includes "industrial parks, some gravel pits," and some potential residential development.
Some people are not following the rules, MacKay said. The pollution "could be from sites two kilometres away if you've got a piece of bare ground and that bare ground is allowing soil to leach into the stream."
The association is working with landowners and the government to create a "Palmer Brook Salmon Sanctuary," which would include a map to keep the location of buffer areas clear. A "green line" would show the areas where development needs to be monitored by the government. Work has been started by the Department of the Environment, the Town of Quispamsis, and the association, MacKay said.
MacKay says Palmer Brook is vitally important because the pond at its head is the first freshwater pool that returning salmon rest in after the 6,000-kilometre swim home from Greenland.
As many as 50 salmon rest in that pool at one time, which is why the first 200 metres of the brook are protected from any fishing, not just the salmon fishing that is banned throughout the St. John River system, which includes Hammond River.
"This sedimentation is not only covering over the eggs, but it's moving downstream and starting to in-fill this pool," MacKay said.
Salmon are creatures of habit, MacKay says, so if the pool changes too much the fish may continue upstream to find another pool, one not so cold and therefore oxygen-rich as the Palmer Brook pool, which connects with a number of springs.
MacKay's opinion why Hammond River has the only viable, self-sustaining salmon population in the region is this "excellent cold-water refuge," which is 15 to 20 metres across, 50 metres in length, and three to four metres deep.
More testing will be done on the brook this month and next, and the association will continue public outreach, MacKay said.
"We want people to recognize this is a vital salmon stream," he said.