Adams grew up in Newfoundland, living his first 12 years in Port Blandford before moving to Gander. He spent much of his youth, as many did, fishing for Atlantic salmon.

“Members of my family had been fishing and hunting guides going back at least three generations,” said Adams. “There are three salmon rivers that run right into the estuary by Port Blandford. I’d walk out in front of my house and cast a line and catch Atlantic salmon. And then we had a family cabin on the Terra Nova River and we used to spend a tremendous amount of time up there fishing as well. So Atlantic salmon and fishing have been a part of my life for as long as I can remember.”

Adams obtained an undergraduate degree from St. Mary’s University with a focus on ecology. He followed that up with a Master of Science degree at Dalhousie University, where he worked on life history, genetics and fisheries management questions for brook trout. When he started work on his PhD, he switched focus to Atlantic salmon and their evolutionary ecology and migratory behaviour.

“I just wanted to understand more about the fish themselves and the environment they lived in and what affected it,” explained Adams. “I was lucky enough to be able to work with some really great NGOs while I was in grad school and undergraduate, doing a lot of great research.”

Following a three-year post-doctoral fellowship at Memorial University, Adams joined the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador, first as an ecosystem management ecologist. Over nearly two decades that have followed, he has served as director of the Centre of Forest Science and Innovation, director of the Wildlife Division and, since 2023, as assistant deputy minister for the Forestry and Wildlife Branch.

“I’m enjoying that, although it’s a battle to keep my fingers connected to the science and fisheries piece,” said Adams. “But I still collaborate with partners at DFO and Memorial University and we still manage to publish a paper or two a year, mostly on salmon biology. I can’t walk away from the fishery stuff, even though my day to day doesn’t involve much fisheries work.”

Adams has served as a member of the Foundation for Conservation of Atlantic Salmon’s Newfoundland and Labrador Advisory Committee for several years now. He noted that he was lucky enough to come into a system where there had been a lot of funding for salmon conservation and management in Newfoundland and Labrador, which is effectively gone now.

“Right now, the FCAS is the only funding source for salmon conservation in the province,” said Adams. “If we want to have good outcomes, if we want to engage and train up the next generation of conservationists, we have to have projects for them to participate in. It’s about conservation now, but it’s also important to have that investment for conservation’s future as well.”