BANGOR DAILY NEWS • July 23, 2024
“In the 1990s the Atlantic Salmon Commission gave IFW some captive broodstock that they were not going to use any more for egg production. We then stocked a number of waters with these retired brood Atlantic salmon in late fall,” according to state fisheries biologist Greg Burr. How many of these Atlantics are actually getting up the Penobscot River tributaries and into Maine lakes? Historically regarded as an anomaly or a fluke, is this fisheries event more commonplace than we once thought? So far this year, a little more than 200 Atlantic salmon have been tallied at the fish passage counting station on the Penobscot River. Another question: “Will Atlantic salmon breed with landlocked salmon?” Why not? DNA wise, they are identical fish.