Integrating Fisheries Data to Adaptively Manage Endangered Populations of Atlantic Salmon in Maine

Fishery managers work with many types of information in planning, managing, and recommending policy related to their area of focus. Integration of collected data can be difficult even in this current era of powerful computers, geographical information systems, and easy to use statistical packages. In Maine, endangered populations of Atlantic salmon are managed using a variety of data collected throughout a given year. In one case example, management of endangered Atlantic salmon in the Downeast region of Maine using several related databases is illustrated.

Several datasets are used containing data on juvenile abundance, stocking locations and numbers, spawner distributions, adult returns, smolt production, water temperature, and spatially referenced habitat survey data. These datasets provide managers with the ability to holistically examine factors affecting population variations. For example, decisions on stocking locations and lifestage are based on juvenile abundance in a particular reach. In this case, survival determines if that reach should receive more of less fish, or more importantly helps identify what limiting habitat factors exist as indicated by poor survival. In turn this information is used to prioritize other actions such as habitat improvement or regulatory changes and land protection.