As a consequence of industrial and agricultural development, most populations native to New England have been extirpated. Remnant native populations of Atlantic salmon in the United States now persist only in eastern Maine. Restoration and rehabilitation efforts, in the form of stocking and fish passage construction, are underway in the Connecticut, Pawcatuck, Merrimack, Penobscot, and eastern Maine rivers of New England. Atlantic salmon life history is extremely complex owing to its use of both freshwater and marine habitats and long ocean migrations. Atlantic salmon spawn in freshwater during fall.
Eggs remain in gravel substrates and hatch during winter, and fry emerge in spring.
Juvenile salmon, commonly called parr, remain in freshwater two to three years in New England rivers depending on growth. Tagging data for New England stocks indicate that US salmon migrate as far north as Greenland. Those remaining at sea feed in the coastal waters of Canada, mostly off Newfoundland and Labrador, and West Greenland. Historically, it has been in these foraging areas that commercial gillnet fisheries for salmon have occurred. After their second winter at sea, most U.S. salmon return home to spawn.