The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1905-05-07
PENOBsCOT SALMON VANISH.
Pulp Minis Have Driven Them From waters
where They AbOunded.

where They AbOunded.
BANGOR, Me-. May o.-Tweuty years ago
salmon swsrmed in the Penobscot River
and a man could 90 up to the pools below
Treats Falls dam, within the city limits
Of Bangor. and hook a fine. big fish before
breakfast. Hundreds Of salmon were taken
with the fly from these pools, and thousands
we're taken in the weirs along the river be-
low Bangor.
Now the salmon is so rare in these waters
that the taking Of a single fish is an event
Of such interest as to call for mention in
the newspapers. The open season for
salmon began on April / and in the first
three weeks this year just three fish were
taken. One was caught with fly In Ban
gOr pools. one was hooked and then shot.
and the third was caught in down river
weir.
Two principal causes are assigned for
the disappearance Of the sea salmon once 80
plentiful in the Penobscot-the pulp mills
and the weiTs.
When, about fifteen years ago, the pulp
mills began to rise along the river above
Bangor. the effects Of the contamination
Of the water by acids and other waste from
the mills were at once apparent in the di-
minished run Of salmon. As the mills
multiplied and the volume Of acids used
in the bleaching processes increased, the
salmon became fewer and fewer, until now
the big, silver sided fishes have come to
shun the river and not many Of them, on
their return from sea, come further than
the upper bay.
The Penobscot salmon. big and strong
as he Is, Is the dRintiest Of fishes, very par
icular about his food and stunning all
polluted waters. Thomas +. Allen, the
most expert Of all Penobscot salmon fisher
men, says that notwithstanding its strong
homing Instinct the salmon will not ascend
10 the spawning beds through waters
poisoned by pulp mill waste, while they are
also discouraged by the dams and other
obstacles lately erected in the Penobscot
and other Maine rivers.
Il was 80 on the Kennebec, which once was
a salmon river tefone pulp mill acids and
dams drove the salmon away. New York
hotels still have on their dinner bills Ken
nebec salmon, although there have been
no kennehec salmon since ever so long
ago. The fishes served are from the
Penobscot OF the st. John, or, perhaps
from the Columbia cold storage fish
Another destructive enemy Of the Penob-
scot salmon is the black bass. Many years
ago some misguided sportsman caused
Pushaw Lake, near Bangor, 10 be stocked
These piratical fishes killed OF all the perch
and pickerel in the lake, and then, seeking
new worlds TO conquer assembled through
brooks and streams TO the upper Penohscot
waters where. every spring since then,
they have Toasted upon the salmon fry
planted by the State and United States
governments. Many thousands Of dollars
have been expended In stocking the Penob-
scot with young salmon, but most Of the
sweet little fishes have gone TO feed the
voracious black bass, which multiply like
locusts and fight like the japanese.
Still another enemy has tho salmon
the lawless dynamiter. When In early sum
mer. a few OF the returning salmon have
reached the spawning watenE-far up the
Penobscot, these poachers kill scores and
hundreds of the fishes by exploding dyna-
mite cartridges in the water
Other fishermen here. p. 4. Buck. Charles
Peavy and Dennis Tracey, blame the weir-
men down the river for the destruction Of
the fishing. They say that all sorts Of lille
gal devices are employed TO make a big
catch for market that the weirmen have
killed the golden goose In their greed for
money.
Sawmill waste. black bass. dams and dv-
namiters al have done their share toward
driving away the salmon, but the pulp mill
acids, probably, have been most destruc-
tive.