The wild salmon population in 33 inner Bay of Fundy rivers has dropped from as many as 40,000 adults a year to fewer than 500 in recent years. In the fall of 1998, federal and provincial government biologists collected wild parr and smolt from the Big Salmon River and transferred them to the Canadian Sturgeon Conservation Centre in Saint John. The fish were growing successfully in the Saint John facility, but biologists were concerned about the stability of their environment. Several years ago, a chlorine fluctuation in the Saint John municipal water supply wiped out a group of fish that were being preserved as a gene bank for the Petitcodiac River. This fall, the fish were vaccinated against furunculosis before being transferred to a larger rearing pond.
Biologists plan to collect four year classes of parr for the gene bank.
Some of the fish will be used in experiments to try to determine the cause of the decline of the salmon in the inner Bay of Fundy. The remaining fish will be raised entirely in fresh water and kept as captive broodstock to provide a source of eggs for the future restoration of these rivers. This spring they stocked the river with juvenile salmon as the battle continues to convince governments to open the gates of the causeway that has destroyed the river's migratory fish populations. As a free-flowing river, the Petitcodiac was one of New Brunswick's most prolific salmon streams. The Petitcodiac salmon strain is believed to be extinct.