Scientists, conservationists warn against closing NB fish research facility

Wolastoqee Nation and Atlantic salmon scientists and conservationists in New Brunswick are criticizing the federal decision to close the Mactaquak Biodiversity Facility, which is primarily made up of a hatchery in French Village below the Mactaquak Dam on the Saint John River.

It is one of two such facilities in the territory being closed by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans – the other is in Coldbrook, NS – as the Carney government cuts spending.

The department also announced that the Atlantic Salmon Live Gene Bank Program, on which staff at those facilities worked, would be discontinued and related salmon-stocking activities would cease.

In a statement to CBC News, the Wolastoki Group, which provides advice and support to six Wolastoki communities, said it is “deeply concerned by the unilateral decision” to close biodiversity operations on the river, also known as the Wolastoki.

“It is unacceptable that we were not consulted or included in discussions regarding the future of the facility,” the statement said.

“This directly impacts Wolastoqiki and our tribal and treaty rights, and impacts both the river and an important species – salmon.”

Tommy Linnasari, a biology professor at the University of New Brunswick and a fellow at the Canadian Rivers Institute, said several programs are underway at the Mactaquoc Biodiversity Facility.

Staff at the Mactaquoc operation collect wild brood stock returning from the ocean, fertilize the eggs with captive milk and release the baby salmon or fry into various locations along the river, he said.

They also collect wild-born juvenile salmon or smolts in the Tobik River as they head to the sea, grow them in tanks for a few years and release them back into Tobik.

“If it were not for the smolt-to-adult release by DFO, the salmon in the Tobik River would have been gone long ago, and if they stopped the program now it would mean the death of salmon upstream of the Mactaquoc,” Linnansaari said.

These outer Bay of Fundy salmon populations have been the focus of the Mactaquoc facility, he said.

But over the years, Mactaquac staff also performed other tasks to support DFO recovery programs for salmon spawning in the rivers of the interior Bay of Fundy.

They sampled the brood stock from rivers such as the Big Salmon to ensure that breeding fishes were not too closely related. This was part of the gene bank program which is being discontinued.

Linnansaari said hatchery staff also operate the fish lift at the dam.

It is used to help other fish besides salmon cross the dam, he said, including river herring, which migrate up the river in large numbers in the spring.

David Roth said the closure of the hatchery would further decimate the salmon population in the St. John River, which has declined from an estimated population of more than 100,000 before industrialization to only a few hundred returning fish per year. New Brunswick Program Director for the Atlantic Salmon Federation.

“These operations are kind of the lifeline that is keeping the population alive right now,” Roth said.whose work involves Working in Atlantic salmon rivers throughout the province, caring for the species, its habitat and conducting research.

Closing the hatchery and ending the stocking program would be “devastating,” he said.

Technical and legal experts from the Wolastoqee Nation are reviewing the potential impact of the decision, such as loss of employment and training opportunities and harm to salmon conservation efforts.

In comments directed at federal Fisheries Minister Joan Thompson, the group said her department and the utility now called NB Power signed an agreement in 1968 that established the Mactaquak Biodiversity Facility and their commitment to operate that facility “during the lifetime of the Mactaquak Project.”

Linnansaari said the agreement was a memorandum of understanding that acknowledged the need to mitigate the ecological impacts of the Mactaquoc Dam.

Such infrastructure comes with the obligation to maintain fish passage under the fisheries law, he said

NB Power did not make anyone available for an interview with CBC News, but the utility did provide a brief statement acknowledging that “changes are coming to the Mactaquak Biodiversity Facility.”

“We will continue to work closely with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans during this transition,” it said in an email.

NB Power’s understanding is that the fish lift will remain operational this year also.

The federal Fisheries Department did not make anyone available for interviews and did not respond to questions about why the Mactaquoc Hatchery is closing, how many people work there, what obligations DFO may have under the agreement with NB Power and what impact it is expected to have on salmon populations.

A media relations officer for the department provided a written statement saying that “Refocus efforts on meeting obligations under the Species at Risk Act through ongoing work with partners and activities identified in the National Atlantic Salmon Strategy.

Operating a hatchery is probably quite expensive, Linnsaari said, and it has been targeted as “low-hanging” fruit to cut costs.

Given that it has been working for decades and salmon are still very endangered, it would be fair to say that it has not been effective, he said.

But he doesn’t see that as an excuse to call it quits.

He hopes that DFO will instead improve its recovery programs or provide funding to someone else who may be able to do a better job.

For example, he said, you can’t expect fish to survive and produce well in nature if you feed them “the cheapest food available,” as federal regulations require.

A lot has been learned there over the years about the best way to raise fish, but the existing infrastructure at the Mactaquoc facility is “completely outdated,” Roth agreed.

“There’s very good reason to believe that with facility improvements you can actually boost the populations that these programs serve,” he said.

Roth expects there will be no interruptions to hatchery operations.

If it is closed even for a year, nearly 60 years and millions of dollars of work will be wasted, he said.

“That genetic strain, these decades of work to keep that population alive, if you stop it you can’t bring it back,” he said, citing what happened to the Rhine River in Switzerland, near where he grew up, and to many other former salmon rivers around the world.

Restocking efforts there have proven futile since the salmon went extinct in the mid-20th century, he said.