The fact is that salmon mean business. Maine's can surely do just as well - provided you don't let your wild salmon go extinct in the meantime. West Coast states, local governments and industries are now working in the partnership with federal agencies, under the ESA, to bring salmon back to the Pacific coast, and those efforts are starting to pay off in jobs and dollars. Surely the people of Maine are no less creative and no less adaptable. Something of value, however difficult to quantify, is lost forever with the extinction of any wild species.
Wild salmon is part of what makes Maine the great state it is.
The ESA also preserves the very real economic benefits that human society reaps from wild animals, plants and healthy ecosystems. The economic costs of not conserving wild Atlantic salmon in Maine and throughout New England are also very significant. Wild Atlantic salmon are highly prized by anglers nationwide who are willing to spend significant sums of money pursuing them. Maine really needs to re-establish its commercial salmon fishery. Maine cannot afford to throw away such economic opportunities.