Penobscot River

Excerpts of Report of the Maine Commissioner of Sea and Shore Fisheries for the Biennium of 1932-1934:

"PENOBSCOT RIVER SALMON

Conditions on the Penobscot River seem to indicate quite clearly that the salmon are decreasing in numbers and I feel that every possible remedy at our command should be used in order to increase the Penobscot River salmon.

Adequate fishways should be constructed or the fishways now in use should be remodelled in such ways as to allow the salmon to enter and proceed through them. After this is done the fishways should be kept clear of refuse at all times so that the fish can have a clear and unobstructed passage.

I also believe that a sufficient amount of money should be appropriated to purchase all the live fish taken in the weirs and the spawn and milt taken from them when ripe. When the eggs hatch the small fish should be liberated only after they are capable of taking care of themselves and not liberated only after they are capable of taking care of themselves and not liberated in a haphazard way without any regard for their future. Tests should be made to determine whether or not the water contains pollution sufficient to retard the growth or perhaps kill the fish. Pickerel are very destructive and eels are a menace. I believe that the gulls, loons and sheldrakes take these small fish in great numbers especially if the small fish are obstructed in any way in their passage to the ocean.

Oftentimes young fish are unable to return to the sea because flashboards are placed on top of the dams when they are returning to the ocean and if the water is low in the rivers the small fish come down against the dams and are unable to get any farther until the fall rains raise the water in the rivers. During the time that they are above the dams waiting for the water to rise eels and other fish prey on them and while the small salmon are in the rivers and ponds they gulls, sheldrakes and loons work havoc on them.

Why should we hesitate to give the Penobscot salmon protection when years ago hundreds of men earned almost their entire livings by salmon fishing. If the sportsman could be assured of landing one fish each when they came to the salmon pool at Bangor hundreds of anglers would fish the pool annually and that would mean thousands of dollars to the State of Maine. What are we trying to save the salmon from extinction except trying to enforce the laws? There are no adequate fishways and the ones we have are plugged almost continually with refuse. No small fish are being hatched from native Penobscot River salmon* and practically all the salmon that get above the dam at Bangor go over the dam at extreme high tides. Such conditions are deplorable and must be remedied if we do not want the salmon to follow the sturgeon and shad which was once a valuable commercial branch of the fisheries ...

The alewives which migrate to the rivers to deposit their spawn are not protected as they should be and consequently bring only a small revenue into the state, whereas if properly protected and adequate fishways maintained these fish would increase in abundance by leaps and bounds. This fact has been demonstrated at Duck Trap Stream, a small stream which enters the ocean at Lincolnwille. For a great many years two mills were maintained on this stream and tight dams prevented the alewives from ascending the river further than the first dam, consequently their spawning ground could not be reached and the spawn cast was immediately destroyed and for many years alewives were not known in or near Lincolnville. A few years ago the mills were closed, the dams went out and now every spring finds a larger number of alewives ascending the stream to spawn. Protection is all that is necessary to increase and bring back to normal an almost depleted industry which once was a valuable asset to the state and provided hundreds of families with the comforts of life and was available as an abundant, natural food supply for the people of not only Maine and New England but of the United States. Why should not a sufficient amount be appropriated to protect this branch of the industry?"

Source: State of Maine Public Documents, Vol. 1. 1932-34. Maine State Archives.

* NOTE: This is incorrect. In the late 1930s, stocking of salmon in the Penobscot River was halted for several years. Fishway counts four years later showed that natural reproduction of Atlantic salmon was still occurring and producing adult salmon returns in numbers similar to those years when salmon were stocked. From the beginning of salmon stocking in the Penobscot in the 1870s, claims were repeatedly made that most or all of the returning salmon in the river were from stocked salmon. Prior to the 1950s, juvenile salmon stocked in the Penobscot were not tagged or marked in any way. This made it impossible for anyone to determine if an adult salmon originated from natural reproduction or from stocking.

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