Press Release

5/18/05

Douglas and Timothy Watts, Friends of Merrymeeting Bay, Maine Toxics Action Coalition

Contacts:

Douglas Watts 207-626-8178 fks@gwi.net

Timothy Watts 508-946-6191 glooskapandfrog@comcast.net

Ed Friedman, FOMB 207-666-3372 edfomb@gwi.net

Kathleen McGee, MTAC 207-666-3598 kmcgee@gwi.net

Endangered Species Protection Sought for Kennebec Salmon

Last week a petition seeking endangered species status for Kennebec River Atlantic salmon was quietly filed with the Departments of Interior and Commerce. Petitioners Douglas Watts, Timothy Watts, The Maine Toxics Action Coalition and Friends of Merrymeeting Bay cited the critically low fish population, the continued impediments to recovery and the lack of strong protections as reasons behind their request for the federal listing.

Douglas Watts, author of the petition described the decision by US Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS) not to list the species as “arbitrary and capricious and in violation of the U.S. Endangered Species Act (ESA).”

Watts continued: “The USFWS have taken tissue samples (pieces of fin) from more than 180 wild Kennebec River Atlantic salmon to prove the "Gulf of Maine DPS (Distinct Population Segment) " of Atlantic salmon merits protection under the ESA, and in the same stroke, excluded these wild Kennebec River salmon from ESA protection.

“Since 1994, the USFWS has provided no explanation for its continued refusal to protect wild Kennebec River Atlantic salmon under the ESA except to say the population remains under study,” he added.

Watts questioned whether the population would remain “under study” until extinction.

On November 17, 2000 the USFWS and National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) [predecessor to NOAA Fisheries] declared a Gulf of Maine DPS of anadromous Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) pursuant to the United States Endangered Species Act (65 Fed. Reg.69459).

USFWS and NMFS defined the Gulf of Maine DPS as including "all naturally reproducing wild populations and those river-specific hatchery populations of Atlantic salmon having historical river specific characteristics found north of and including tributaries of the lower Kennebec River to, but not including, the mouth of the St. Croix River at the U.S.-Canada border."

USFWS and NMFS further declared Gulf of Maine DPS of anadromous Atlantic salmon to be an endangered species pursuant to the United States Endangered Species Act.

Kathleen McGee, Director of the Maine Toxics Action Center noted that using the federal agency’s own data and conclusions “ it is clear that the Kennebec River anadromous Atlantic salmon fall within the geographic bounds of the Gulf of Maine DPS and meet all of the biological requirements set forth in the United States Endangered Species Act. And still, for the past five years USFWS and NMFS have failed to protect Kennebec River Atlantic salmon as an endangered species.”

Eleven years have passed since 1994 when the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service began taking tissue samples from wild Kennebec River Atlantic salmon to determine if they qualify for protection under the United States Endangered Species Act.

According to Timothy Watts, “during these 11 years the USFWS has taken no action to protect the wild Atlantic salmon of the Kennebec River under the U.S. Endangered Species Act. In Nov. 2000, following the publication of a National Academy of Sciences review of salmon genetics in Maine Rivers, the USFWS delineated a "Gulf of Maine DPS" of Atlantic salmon, which included the Kennebec River, and its wild Atlantic salmon within its geographic bounds. At the same time, the USFWS specifically excluded wild Atlantic salmon in the Kennebec River from any protection under the U.S. Endangered Species Act. A half decade later, the USWFS has yet to take any steps to include wild Kennebec River Atlantic salmon in the Gulf of Maine DPS; nor has the agency published any timetable for such a decision to be made.”

Concern over anadromous fish restoration on the Kennebec River and Merrymeeting Bay is nothing new. Section. 4. of the 1818 Massachusetts Laws, Chapter CXXI contains: "An Act in addition to the several acts now in force for the preservation of Salmon, Shad and Alewives within the Counties of Cumberland, Lincoln, Kennebec and Oxford,”

Penalties were described for those who would interfere with the fishery:

“Be it further enacted, That every person who shall drift or drag any net or seine in the waters of Kennebec River, at Merry-meeting bay, or in the Amareskoggin River, emptying into the same, so as to scrape the bottom, disturb or destroy any of the spawn or young of the salmon, shad or alewives, at any season of the year, he or they, so offending, shall forfeit and pay a fine of ten dollars for each and every offence, and shall moreover forfeit the net or seine and boat so used, to be disposed of according to the law passed on the twenty-second day of February, seventeen hundred ninety-four.”

Ed Friedman, Chair of Friends of Merrymeeting Bay described the U.S. Endangered Species Act as “requiring the USFWS to make its listing determination on the best scientific and commercial information available at the time of the listing decision” The USFWS has yet to provide any factual basis for its decision to exclude the Kennebec River Atlantic salmon population from ESA protection.” “Federal law does not allow the USFWS to put a population of an endangered species in a perpetual state of being "under study" and thus deprived of protection under the ESA”, he added.

The Petitioners request the Departments of Interior and Commerce make an immediate decision to protect or not protect the Atlantic salmon of the Kennebec River as an endangered species pursuant to the United States Endangered Species Act.

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