Evaluation of Habitat Expansion Outcomes on Upper Terra Nova River.

This project will monitor water flow and salmon migration through the Mollyguajeck Falls fishway.

It will evaluate outcomes of a 1985 to 2002 program to open access and colonize the upper watershed with Atlantic salmon. This section contains an estimated 43 percent of the entire river’s spawning grounds and 47 percent of its rearing habitat.

The objective of this evaluation is to answer the following:

• Has the fishway been effective in facilitating salmon migration, and if not, why not?
• How many salmon are currently migrating through the structure compared to the previous counts in 1992 and 2001?
• To what extent has the colonization of the upper watershed been successful?
• What, if any, remedial action is required to improve salmon passage through the fishway structure?
• What management changes, if any, would be desirable to improve population growth in the expanded habitat and the river as a whole?

Contact: John Baird, 709-533-5696, jdbaird@eastlink.ca; Kevin Stroud, 709-533-2391, kevinstroud@nf.sympatico.ca