BANGOR (AP) – The number of salmon returning to spawn in the Penobscot River this fall went up to the highest level in seven years.

During this fall’s migration, 1,323 adult salmon were counted at the Veazie Dam salmon trap as they made their way upriver to spawn, according to Joan Trial, a fisheries biologist at the Maine Atlantic Salmon Commission.

That’s 209 more salmon than last year and the highest count since 1997.

Biologists are encouraged by the higher numbers, but said today’s salmon runs are a far cry from historic populations, which have been estimated at tens of thousands of fish each fall.

The fish in the Penobscot are protected by state regulations but are not among those in Maine that have been deemed federally endangered. The 2004 number is a sign of good survival during the years that Maine salmon spend in the open ocean, Trial said.

This summer’s cool, damp weather was optimum for salmon travel, which probably accounts for part of the increase, Trial said.

Biologists would also like to believe that recent initiatives to help the salmon stocks are beginning to show results. Efforts include stocking the Penobscot with hundreds of thousands of young hatchery-raised salmon, working to reduce predation and enforcing state bans on Atlantic salmon fishing.

Realistically, it could be a decade or more before biologists can claim credit for the slight population recovery, Trial said.

“We can’t help but hope that some of the good things we’re doing in the watershed are making a difference,” she said.

Elsewhere in the state, salmon counts varied widely for 2004. The statewide Atlantic salmon returns this fall include one fish in the Union River, the same as in 2003; 10 in the Narraguagus River, down from 21; one in the Pleasant River, down from two; one in the Dennys River, down from eight; and 11 in the Androscoggin River, up from two.

; 10 in the Saco River, down from 39; and eight in the Aroostook River, up from two.

AP-ES-12-02-04 1106EST