Salmon federation euthanizes fish after disease detection

Following the detection of a disease dangerous to fish populations in its East Machias hatchery last week, the Downeast Salmon Federation (DSF) euthanized 170,000 of its young salmon, in a major setback for the stocking program. Moving forward in a timely fashion will require the purchase of an ultraviolet sterilization system, for which the DSF is now raising funds.
"This is a pretty significant bump in the road," says Dwayne Shaw, DSF's executive director, relaying that the year's efforts at the hatchery were lost. "But it's one year out of many. We've been doing this for almost 40 years. It's a long game."
Since 1982, the DSF has been working to restock wild salmon in Maine rivers and along the coast, including establishing two hatcheries using Peter Gray's renowned methods. Gray was a British fisheries biologist who developed natural methods of raising young salmon, successfully increasing the number of salmon on the River Tyne from 724 to 13,000 over three decades. Gray was involved in the establishment of the DSF's two hatcheries in 2012, which have since released millions of parr to the area.
"We have many fish in the sea and many fish in the rivers," Shaw says, emphasizing that the program will continue to grow and expand. Currently its two hatcheries are producing fish for the East Machias, Narraguagus and Pleasant rivers, with an average of 300,000 salmon released each year.
Per Peter Gray's methods, the fish are reared as naturally as possible to give them the vim and vigor needed to survive in the difficult real world environment. The baby salmon are born in substrate incubators that simulate a salmon's nest and are then raised in river water in black tanks with accelerated flows to mimic the environment of a river. It's a method that works seven to 21 times better than other salmon stocking methods, according to Shaw.
This is the first time in DSF's history that a federally monitored disease has been detected in one of its hatcheries. The disease -- infectious pancreatic virus (IPV) -- is not dangerous to humans and is believed to be endemic or common in wild salmon populations in Maine, Shaw says. The "little athletes," as DSF calls its baby salmon, were not exhibiting any unhealthy symptoms. Despite this, guidelines from the Maine Department of Marine Resources required that the "precious endangered animals" be euthanized, Shaw wrote in a release.
Before the DSF can receive its next shipment of salmon eggs at its East Machias facility early next year, it will need to sterilize its equipment with an ultraviolet light system, according to the recommendation of pathologists. The ultraviolet light treatment may have the secondary effect of preventing other diseases and bacterial infections that occur in the rearing of the fish, although Shaw notes that it could make the salmon more susceptible to those ailments in the wild once they are released.
To install the ultraviolet light system, DSF needs to raise $75,000 in private matching funds by the end of the year, with all funds being matched at least once. "We're under a crunch to raise the money and get it installed by the end of February," Shaw says.
Donations to DSF can be made at www.mainesalmonrivers.org/donate.