Salmon

In the 1950s it was discovered that salmon from rivers in the US and Canada, as well as from Europe, gathered in the sea around Greenland and the Faroe Islands. A massive commercial fishing industry was established, taking salmon in drift nets. After an initial series of record annual catches, the numbers crashed: between 1979 and 1990, catches fell from four million to 700,000.

Currently, overfishing, habitat loss and aquacultured salmon escapes are the greatest threats to natural Atlantic salmon populations.

In New England, many efforts are underway to restore salmon to the region by knocking down obsolete dams and updating others with fish ladders and other contraptions that have proven effective in the West with Pacific salmon. There is some success thus far, with populations growing in the Penobscot River and the Connecticut River. There has also been some success in establishing Atlantic salmon in Fish Creek, a tributary of Oneida Lake in central New York.

Atlantic salmon however, remains a popular fish for human consumption. It is commonly sold fresh, canned, or frozen.