Salmon returned to P.E.I. river

On Monday, 10 wildlife conservationists scooped more than 400 salmon from P.E.I.’s North Lake Creek and moved them to the province’s Hay River.

This daylong mission was the culmination of years worth of work by the Souris and Area Branch of the Prince Edward Island Wildlife Federation in an attempt to repopulate the Hay River with salmon.

The river’s salmon population died off 10 years ago, which the wildlife federation attributes to beaver dams choking off the salmons’ run to spawning grounds. Atlantic salmon are an at-risk species, but according to the federation’s branch coordinator Fred Cheverie, establishing the fish in another river should help the situation.

“If we spread out salmon on a larger habitat, as a result there should be less competition for them,” Cheverie recently told CBC News.

With the introduced salmon ready to spawn, the conservationists hope that it will take place in the Hay River and, consequently, their descendents will return to the Hay River to spawn again. While this pattern would establish a new population, it will be years before the group knows if restocking the site worked. If all goes as planned, the Hay salmon might one day be plentiful enough to fish again, said Cheverie.