Back from the brink: An ecosystem approach to restoring native adult Atlantic salmon through conservation rearing

Fundy National Park (FNP), with its partners, has implemented an innovative restoration strategy which has seen over 2200 wild origin inner Bay of Fundy (iBoF) adult Atlantic salmon released back into their natal river in the last 3 years. Through our research and monitoring of this program, we have observed marked increases in ecological health and integrity, adult returns (as repeat spawners), and increased juvenile salmon production.

Building off these unprecedented early successes, we will determine the cascading positive effects of these releases on ecosystem health and salmon population fitness. Specifically, the objectives are (1) assess how the state of freshwater ecosystems affects juvenile survival, size-at-age, and condition, (2) determine the effect of substrate/bedload on overwintering egg survival, (3) determine egg to smolt, and smolt to adult survival of offspring produced from Marine Conservation Farm released adult salmon.
Contact: Dr. Kurt Samways, 506-451-6892, kurt.samways@unb.ca