These days, Alanah Annis spends her days catching fish. But as a senior technician with Fort Folly Habitat Recovery, Annis is not your typical fisher.
Annis and her team are working in the Pollett River as part of the Inner Bay of Fundy Salmon Recovery project, collecting out-migrating Atlantic salmon smolts, and bringing them to an open net pen farm to grow safely into adult salmon.
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The smolts are juvenile salmon, who’ve spent three to four years growing in rivers, and are now ready to head out to sea to feed in the Bay of Fundy.
“We take out-migrating smolts who are trying to make their way out to the ocean,” says Annis. “We intercept them, and then bring them out to the sea cage where they are grown to maturity. Once mature, we release them back to their natal rivers to spawn naturally.”
At one time, there were up to 40,000 adults in the inner Bay of Fundy Atlantic salmon population, but by 1999, less than 250 remained, and the entire population was facing extinction. These days, says Annis, it’s estimated there are less than 200 left.
The reason for the drop in population is not fully known, says Annis, but it’s understood that whatever is going wrong is happening at sea.
“What it all boils down to is that there’s something happening in the marine environment,” says Annis. “There are fish leaving the rivers, they’re going out to the ocean, but they’re not coming back. So there’s something happening out in the ocean, and we’re not exactly sure what’s happening to them.”
Annis says one of the factors is believed to be simply the low population. “It could be a numbers game,” says Annis. “The critical threshold for numbers of fish going out to the ocean isn’t up to where it needs to be.”
Other factors could include wider ecosystem shifts like increases in predators. Possible effects from industries that utilize ocean water, and changes in the marine environment from water temperature changes are also possible factors.
In terms of population numbers, Annis cites the example of the Petitcodiac River. The causeway across the Petitcodiac was put in in 1968, and closed off the river until the gates were opened in 2010.
“The salmon population did really decline during those decades,” says Annis. “The Petitcodiac system provided habitat to 20% of the whole population of inner Bay of Fundy salmon.”
These days, the Petitcodiac is flowing freely again, under a bridge being finished this summer to replace the causeway, and Annis hopes the increased passage will mean more fish coming back to spawn.
“Just recently, we had observed massive migration of rainbow smelt come up through the Petitcodiac,” says Annis. “And that’s really great, because these fish are migrating from the ocean back into the rivers to spawn. It is an excellent source of marine derived nutrients, and that will actually kickstart the ecosystem as a whole because more nutrients means more food within the food web.” The rainbow smelt are also a food source for salmon kelt, adult salmon who have battled the odds and spawned, and may do so again if they have the strength.
Fort Folly Habitat Recovery is a partner in the Fundy Salmon Recovery Project, says Annis. Parks Canada, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, the Atlantic Canada Fish Farmers Association, and Cooke Aquaculture are also collaborating on the project. The sea farm, built with Cooke Aquaculture equipment and staffed by Cooke workers, is located off Grand Manaan Island.
The project stemmed from research completed by Corey Clark, the resource conservation manager of Fundy National Park, says Annis. “He determined that fish have increased survival with less captivity.”
While previous programs have focussed on spawning Atlantic salmon in captivity and releasing them as fry, this new program focusses on ensuring wild spawned salmon who have spent years growing in rivers make it back from the ocean as adults.
“Through this project, we’re able to take these juveniles to a conservation sea farm, keep them safe away from predators, and grow them up to adults, and then release them back. We’re able to generate lots of progeny that is free of captive rearing,” says Annis.
And Annis says she is seeing results. “The number of juveniles available for inclusion into our program has more than tripled since 2014,” she says. “And last year, we handled over 4000 smolts.”
“That is really, really exciting to see, because in the early days, there were not many fish. We’re seeing it grow over time through our program in the Petitcodiac river system, and seeing lots of juvenile density increases through the spawning of these adults that we are releasing.”