LEWISTON — Up to 20 Atlantic salmon are getting wired this spring for a planned study of the fish in the Androscoggin River during the 2011 migration season.

On Thursday, Maine’s Androscoggin River Alliance announced it has obtained grant funds to buy radio telemetry equipment for the study.

The alliance will donate $10,000 to the Maine Department of Marine Resources to buy new fish-tagging equipment for the salmon.

In the study, salmon trapped at the Brunswick Dam fish ladder will be implanted with radio tracking devices, and then released upstream of the dam to continue their spawning migration, Neil Ward, alliance program director, stated in the report.

Antennas upgraded by the donation will be placed in strategic locations upstream to monitor the salmon’s progress as they pass by.

Additionally, a hand-held antenna will be used to locate sites used by the salmon for habitat and spawning.

“The Androscoggin River was once famous for its spring run of Atlantic salmon,” Ward said.

“Our ultimate goal is to restore the native fisheries, including salmon, throughout the watershed, and this study will give fishery managers critical information on what sections of river still provide viable habitat and where there are barriers to fish passage.”

“The ability to track Atlantic salmon movements within the Androscoggin River is a unique opportunity, one that the Department has wanted to pursue since the Brunswick Fishway opened in 1982,” Michael Brown, Marine Resource scientist II with the MDMR’s Bureau of Sea Run Fisheries and Habitat, said. 

“We appreciate the ARA helping us finally make it happen.”

The ARA has partnered with the Atlantic Salmon Federation, Maine DMR, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries, and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on many fish restoration efforts on the Androscoggin River and its tributaries, Ward said.

“No one can tell you where in the Androscoggin River adult Atlantic salmon are going after they pass the Brunswick Dam,” John Burrows, director of New England Programs for the Atlantic Salmon Federation in Brunswick, said.

“This is crucial information. We need to know where they are spending the summer, how many are surviving to spawn in the autumn, and where they are spawning.”

Beginning in May, Atlantic salmon will be selected, tagged and then hand released into the river above the Brunswick dam, Ward said. The project will also offer an educational component.

“I work with nine schools, mostly third and fourth grades in the watershed area to raise salmon fry that are released into a tributary of the river each year,” he said.

Data collected in the study this season will be made available to those teachers and students to incorporate into their curriculum.

“And the students will be able to, literally, get hands-on experience using the hand-held antenna to search for returning salmon during their fry release field trips,” Ward said.

“This is all very exciting, and engages the next generation in the river’s restoration.”

He said the equipment will give environmental regulators the necessary information to protect important spawning habitat.

“The equipment will track the movement of all salmon during their stay in the Androscoggin to determine where, how and when the fish move and how far up river they go as well as any tributaries they choose to explore,” Ward said.

The fish ladder in Brunswick is owned and operated by NextEra Energy Resources LLC, a subsidiary of FPL Group Inc.

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