Posted by MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) — Biologists are trying to determine whether a warm, dry fall is responsible for a drop in the number of landlocked Atlantic salmon that swam up a Lake Champlain tributary in Vermont to spawn this fall or if there could be other reasons behind a five-year decline.
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service statistics found that 42 salmon were trapped at the Winooski River fish passage this fall at the dam between Burlington and the city of Winooski where technicians trap the fish and release them upstream so they can continue to their spawning grounds.
This year’s figure compares to 84 trapped in 2017 and a high of 189 caught in 2011. While there’s always variation, there’s been a five-year decline and the 2018 figure was the lowest since 2009.
Source: Associated Press via Boston.com
Author: Wilson Ring, AP, December 29, 2018
Photo: VT Fish & Wildlife
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