Parks Canada and the Atlantic Salmon Rescue

In Canada, Atlantic salmon can be found from the southern tip of Nova Scotia to the most northern rivers of Quebec, through Newfoundland, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island. Atlantic salmon were once found in every country that had rivers that flowed into the North Atlantic and Baltic Sea including the United States, Norway, Russia, France and Spain. Canada is lucky to have a wealth of Atlantic salmon habitat, covering one-third of all Atlantic salmon habitat in the world. Juvenile Atlantic salmon typically spend two to four years in fresh water before migrating to marine waters where they spend the next one to four years. After they’ve grown into adults in salt water, the salmon return to the rivers they grew up in to give birth to the next generation.

Atlantic salmon populations in some areas, like the Inner Bay of Fundy, are endangered; that’s why they need all the help they can get to protect them! Some of the biggest threats they face include habitat loss, climate change and pollution. Salmon are a sensitive species that depend on clean healthy rivers and oceans for their survival. To help species like Atlantic salmon, you can do your part by reducing the amount of plastic waste you produce to keep the Atlantic salmon’s habitat litter free! Take the Water Taste Challenge to help your family cut out disposable bottles. By taking action to help the Atlantic salmon, you’ll be joining other amazing organizations on their salmon saving mission, like Parks Canada.

Canada’s Salmon Savers

Parks Canada has been working hard to protect Atlantic salmon in New Brunswick’s Fundy National Park. Their salmon saving plan starts out in the spring, when they give a helping hand to young salmon going out to sea for the first time. These young salmon, known as smolts, are caught using a smolt wheel which are placed into the river to catch them as they swim downstream. These smolts are then taken to protected saltwater enclosures, where they can experience the natural conditions of the Bay of Fundy while being protected from predators and taken care of by dedicated staff. These young salmon will stay here for 18 months until they are ready to return to freshwater.

Salmon Release

Once the salmon are grown up, they are fitted with an electronic tag and released in the river where they hatched, where they will swim upstream to their spawning grounds. Biologists with Fundy National Park meet the fish in the fresh water rivers at their spawning areas, where they lay their eggs. These biologists will check the salmon for an electronic tag to see if they are the same fish that Parks Canada helped to raise. So far, this research has shown that the smolt raising is a big success! Since this salmon saving program started in 2009, more Atlantic salmon are returning to the Fundy Rivers.

Want to join Parks Canada’s salmon saving project? If you’re in Fundy National Park in August and September you can! Check out the Swim with Salmon for Science program and you could be trained by biologists to conduct salmon surveys!