An alarming striped bass population explosion on the Miramichi River is threatening Atlantic Salmon survival. Mark Hambrook of Miramichi Salmon Association explains what needs to be done to save the salmon today.
An alarming striped bass population explosion on the Miramichi River is threatening Atlantic Salmon survival. Mark Hambrook of Miramichi Salmon Association explains what needs to be done to save the salmon today.
Striped bass coming back has been the best thing to happen to sport fishing in ALL THREE maritime provinces for an age. They have put more fishing rods in people’s hands than salmon ever have. They are readily accessible, you can use bait, lures and flies. The “fish of a 1000 casts” doesn’t have that going for it. Let’s be realistic. If you want to fish salmon on the decent (that means private) water of the Miramichi, you better have deep pockets. From an economical perspective, its a no brainer for the federal government. Most New England states have prioritized a recreational striped bass fishery over a commercial one for just that reason.
I don’t want to see the end of salmon anymore than the next guy, but I can’t help but feel the writing has been on the wall for decades. All the efforts made by the ASF hasn’t slowed the decline. The Greenland deal is too little too late. No doubt it was only signed because the commercial interests knew there were no fish anyway. It seems salmon’s decline started about the same time the striper stocks collapsed. What else does the MSA want? There is already a limited commercial fishery on the river, the retention for anglers has been increased to 3 fish. Are they interested in managing striped bass or eradicating them?