The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1905-07-21
DRIVE OUT SALMON.
PULP MILLS ON THE PENoBsCoT:
RIVER SPOIL FISHING. T..
Contamination Of the Water by Ref
use-Weirs and Black Bass "
Aid in the Rout of This
Royal Fish. 80,

Aid in the Rout of This
Royal Fish. -
Twenty years ago salmon swarmed
In the Penobscot. river and q man
could go up to the pools below Treats
Falls dam within the city limits of
Bangor, and hook a. fine, big fish be-
fore breakfast. { Hundreds of salmon
were taken with the fly from these
pools, and. thousands were taken in
the weirs along the river below Ban
gor.
Now the salmon is so rare in these
waters, says Bangor report, that the
taking OF single fish is an event of
SUCH interest as to call for mention
In the newspapers. The open season
TOR salmon began on April 1, and in
the first three weeks this year Just
three fish were taken. One was caught
with a fly in Bangor pools, one was
hooked and then shot, and the third
was caught in a downriver weir.
Two principal causes are assigned
for the disappearance Of the sea sal
| mon once so plentiful in the Penob-
scot-the pulp mills and the weirs.
When, about Is years ago, the pulp
mills began to rise along the river
above Bangor, the effects of the con-
| tamination of the water by acids and
other waste from the mills were at
| once apparent in the diminished run
| or salmon. AS the mills multiplied
| and the volume of acids used in the
bleaching process increased, the salm-
on 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 lis, is the daintiest of
fishes, very particular about his food
and stunning. all polluted waters.
Thomas F.. Allen. the most expert of
all Penobscot salmon fishermen. says
that Notwithstanding it's strong hon.
ing instinct the: salmon will not
ascend to the spawning beds through
waters poisoned by pulp mill waste,
while they are also discouraged by the
dams and other obstacles erected in
the Penobscot and other Maine rivers,
1t was so on the Kennebec, which
once was salmon river before pulp
mill acids and dams drove the sal1n-
on away New York hotels still have
on their dinner bills "Kennebec salm-
on" although there have been no
Kennebec salmon since ever so long
ago. The fishes served are from the
Penobscot or the St. John, or, perhaps,
from the Columbia storage fish.
Another destructive enemy of the
Penobscot salmon is the black bass.
Many years." ago some Z misguided
sportsman used--PushaW~lake,~ near
Bangor, to be stocked with black bass.
These pfratica1 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 Penobscot waters, where,
every spring since then, they have
Toasted upon the salmon fry planted
by the state and United States govern
ments. Many thousands of dollars have
been expended in stocking the Penob-
WV
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 the salmon
the lawless dynamifer. When, in
early summer, a few of the returning
salmon have reached the spawning wa
ters-far up the Penobscot, these
poachers kill scores and hundreds of
the fishes by exploding dynamite cart
ridges in the water.
Fishermen here blame the weir
men down the river for the destruc-
ton of the fishing. They say that
all sorts of illegal devices are en-
ployed 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
dynamiters all have done their share
toward driving away the salmon, but
the pulp mill acids probably have been
ro0st doefruotivo