Atlantic Salmon Crisis

April 1, 1984 Resolutions

Number: 1984-18

 

WHEREAS, the abundance of Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) has declined throughout most of the species’ range, including that of stocks of North American origin that range throughout waters of the western North Atlantic; and

WHEREAS, extensive and ongoing efforts to restore spawning runs of Atlantic salmon to New England’s rivers may be in jeopardy by over-exploitation of Atlantic salmon on the high seas, and in territorial coastal, estuarine, and inland waters; and

WHEREAS, the North Atlantic Salmon Conservation Organization (NASCO) recently was formed among nations producing and harvesting Atlantic salmon to implement conservation and management programs to restore and enhance stocks of Atlantic salmon; and

WHEREAS, reasons for the Atlantic salmon’s decline are not fully known and may include factors such as acid rain, which cannot immediately be solved; and

WHEREAS, harvest can be controlled immediately, although management of Atlantic salmon harvest is a complex biological and political process;

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the National Wildlife Federation, in annual meeting assembled March 15-18, 1984, in Atlanta, Georgia, requests that the United States and Canadian Commissioners to the NASCO and state and provincial government agencies responsible for management of Atlantic ocean stocks of Atlantic salmon take the following actions to protect and enhance Atlantic salmon stocks and their habitats:

  1. implement management measures that drastically reduce harvest of Atlantic salmon equitably among traditional users, not to exclude possible implementation of a complete moratorium on the high seas fisheries for 5 years;
  2. establish research programs to investigate the causes of the Atlantic salmon’s decline;
  3. establish Atlantic salmon habitat management and enhancement programs in all present and historic Atlantic salmon streams;
  4. ensure that the number of male and female adult Atlantic salmon reaching spawning grounds in each river is sufficient to provide optimum utilization of juvenile nursery areas by their young and that Atlantic salmon smolt can emigrate to the sea unimpeded;
  5. develop and implement comprehensive and coordinated plans to manage Atlantic salmon and their habitat;
  6. urge the adoption of a system similar to that now in force in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Maine to tag the bodies of all Atlantic salmon harvested by recreational and commercial fishermen to help prevent illegal harvest and sale of the species and to monitor all catches; and
  7. closely regulate, through implementation of a vigorous system to monitor each transaction, the commerce of commercially-reared and harvested Atlantic salmon to ensure that no illegal harvest or commercial transactions occur and encourage the aquaculture industry for Atlantic salmon to meet the commercial market demands; and
      8. BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the National Wildlife Federation urges the U.S. Government to organize an Advisory Committee to assist the U.S. Commissioners to NASCO in developing U.S. policy on Atlantic salmon, the group to consist of representatives of conservation and sport and commercial fisheries organizations, academic or research interests, agencies responsible for Atlantic salmon management in each of the six New England states, and a representative each from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service.