{"id":937778,"date":"2026-10-18T15:55:01","date_gmt":"2026-10-18T15:55:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/937778\/"},"modified":"2026-10-18T15:55:01","modified_gmt":"2026-10-18T15:55:01","slug":"our-river-is-almost-dead-whats-killing-an-iconic-miramichi-fishery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/937778\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Our river is almost dead\u2019: What\u2019s killing an iconic Miramichi fishery?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Every veteran salmon angler, guide and outfitter in the Miramichi watershed remembers their first encounter with a striped bass. <\/p>\n

For Rip Cunningham, a member of the storied Black Brook Salmon Club, it happened at the junction of the Main Southwest Miramichi River and the Cains River.<\/p>\n

\u201cI caught what I thought was a salmon, and I was going, \u2018This fish isn\u2019t jumping. This is odd,\u2019\u201d he said.\u00a0He reeled it in. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe guides who live on the river, who\u2019d been fishing on the river for years, said \u2018What\u2019s that?\u2019 They had no idea whatsoever.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was a striped bass, a fish Cunningham believes now represents an existential threat to the Miramichi\u2019s most iconic species: his beloved wild Atlantic salmon.<\/p>\n

Byron Coughlan, who runs the County Haven fishing lodge near Blackville, was guiding two salmon anglers from New England about 15 years ago when they caught two bass.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey said, \u2018Your river’s done,\u2019\u201d he recalled. \u201c\u2018The bass is going to eat everything.\u2019 They said, \u2018Eventually you won\u2019t have any salmon.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

LISTEN | The saga of salmon, striped bass and the Miramichi:<\/p>\n

Atlantic Voice26:10A tale of two fish on the Miramichi<\/p>\n

How much do you meddle with Mother Nature? Atlantic Salmon and striped bass have always lived in the Miramichi watershed, but with populations of each out of whack – the salmon waning, and the bass surging – anglers, scientists and politicians are weighing in about what to do. Wade into a world with no easy answers, and no shortage of opinions, in Jacques Poitras’ documentary, Two Fish Stories.<\/p>\n

The community of anglers, guides and outfitters in the Miramichi watershed fear that prediction is now on the verge of coming true. <\/p>\n

Juvenile salmon, they say, are being gobbled up on their migratory trek to the ocean by a growing striped bass population.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a crisis facing Atlantic salmon and other species on the Miramichi,\u201d Alex Mills, an angler who is part of lawsuit against the federal government, told the House of Commons standing committee on fisheribes and oceans this month.<\/p>\n

In 1996, the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans closed the commercial striped bass fishery to halt a collapse in stocks caused by overfishing.<\/p>\n

The salmon anglers say the closure allowed the bass population to grow to an unsustainable level, moving upriver from its traditional home in tidal waters and throwing off the Miramichi\u2019s delicate balance.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Bradford Burns, background, fly fishes for Atlantic salmon on the Southwest Miramichi River. Burns, an American, has been coming here from the U.S. to fish for decades. The angler in the foreground is Dawson Hovey. (Jacques Poitras\/CBC)<\/p>\n

DFO blamed for \u2018a big mess\u2019<\/p>\n

The anglers say the growth of the striped bass is killing the fabled recreational salmon fishery, once an economic lifeline for small communities along the river.<\/p>\n

DFO officials \u201chave done essentially nothing\u201d to curb the bass boom \u201cand created this big mess,\u201d said Bradford Burns, a Maine business owner with a salmon camp on the Southwest Miramichi.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The bass population is now north of 500,000 \u2014 some estimates are much higher \u2014 while salmon returns were below 5,000 in 2025, DFO numbers indicate.<\/p>\n

Burns, Cunningham, Mills and two other anglers have filed a lawsuit in federal court hoping to force DFO to resume a commercial bass fishery to reduce the population and give more smolts a chance to reach the ocean.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis extraordinary level of predation is completely unsustainable and is on the verge of extirpating Atlantic salmon from what has long been considered the greatest salmon river in North America,\u201d the group wrote in a letter to the federal fisheries minister in 2024.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Salmon are so tied to the identity of the Miramichi region, highway signs depict the fish. (Jacques Poitras\/CBC)<\/p>\n

On its website, DFO says bass eat \u201cvariable numbers\u201d of smolts every year, and \u201cit is not clear whether this natural predator-prey dynamic is limiting the number of returning adult salmon to the Miramichi river.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018A direct correlation,\u2019 outfitter says<\/p>\n

Brock Curtis, who operates an outfitter store in Blackville that is an essential destination for anglers and guides, says the cause and effect are clear.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur numbers are dropping as the bass numbers are increasing, and there’s a direct correlation there,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The Atlantic salmon is so tied to the river\u2019s identity that its image is used on provincial road signs identifying the Miramichi river route. Curtis says what\u2019s at risk is a unique fishery that puts a premium on patience, practice and a calm state of mind.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe live in a world where a lot of people are used to immediate gratification,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis sport isn’t like that. It’s a skill, and you put your time in and you will be rewarded in the end.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Brock Curtis runs a salmon-angling outfitting store in Blackville. (Jacques Poitras\/CBC)<\/p>\n

Striper success<\/p>\n

By contrast, the abundant striped bass has spawned a two-day frenzy of immediate gratification that unfolds downriver every May.<\/p>\n

Hundreds of anglers crowd into the city of Miramichi for the Striper Cup, a bass tournament with a seemingly bottomless list of prizes and giveaways.<\/p>\n

“We\u2019ve always had fish,\u201d participant Barry Hay said in an interview over the side of his boat during this year\u2019s tournament. “We\u2019ve never won, but we\u2019ve always had fish, two a day.”<\/p>\n

Dwayne Ogilvie of Salisbury said he loves the \u201caggressiveness\u201d of the bass.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Striper Cup launched in Miramichi in 2015 and has turned into one of the city\u2019s biggest tourism draws. Paul McGraw, the city\u2019s economic development officer, said the success of the event is \u201cone hundred per cent\u201d attributable to the booming bass population.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A striped bass is weighed during the Miramichi Striper Cup, an annual catch-and-release tournament for the fish. (Jacques Poitras\/CBC)<\/p>\n

\u201cWe never, ever imagined that it would grow and develop the brand that we have with the Miramichi Striper Cup as quickly as we have done it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

McGraw would not comment on the debate involving salmon.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe’d be naive to think there wasn’t a controversy,\u201d he said, \u201cbut that’s not what we’re into.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the cup’s opening ceremony in May, pro angler Jeff Wilson, a co-founder of the tournament, urged participants to lobby politicians against a reopened commercial striped bass fishery.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really important that you folks talk to your politicians and protect this resource for our kids,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been here for millennia. They\u2019re not bad. They\u2019re good. Bass are good.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Anglers pose with the first striped bass caught during the 2026 Miramichi Striper Cup. (Jacques Poitras\/CBC)<\/p>\n

A detour for juvenile salmon<\/p>\n

The anglers taking DFO to court estimate a commercial fishery of 300,000 to 400,000 bass would reduce the population to about 100,000 \u2014 enough, they say, to give the salmon a chance.<\/p>\n

Ottawa approved a First Nations striped bass fishery of 50,000 in 2018 and increased the allowable catch to 175,000 six years later.<\/p>\n

That maximum has not been reached, and anglers say letting non-Indigenous anglers catch that quota would be a good start.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In the meantime, the Atlantic Salmon Federation, the Miramichi Salmon Association and Anqotum Resource Management, a Mi\u2019kmaw conservation agency, are doing what they can.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The Atlantic Salmon Federation, the Miramichi Salmon Federation, and Anqotum Resource Management are collecting juvenile salmon, known as smolts, in large spinning drums to be tagged, counted, and transported downriver in an effort to keep them safe from bass predation. (Jacques Poitras\/CBC)<\/p>\n

In the spring, their teams descended on the northwest branch of the Miramichi at Wayerton to collect and tag salmon smolts and truck large numbers of them downriver, around and past the hungry bass population, so they could make it to the ocean.<\/p>\n

\u201cConcept-wise, it works,\u201d said David Roth, an Atlantic Salmon Federation biologist who called the operation an emergency measure. “It’s really just about the numbers that you can catch in total.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s not like we want to transport fish for decades to come. Where the population currently is, everything helps.\u201d<\/p>\n

Salmon angler Rip Cunningham calls it \u201ca good experiment\u201d but unlikely to make a dent in the problem.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou cannot get enough of them in tanks and move them around to make any reasonable difference to this river,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

DFO biologist looks for \u2018larger mechanisms\u2019<\/p>\n

Roth and Joe Augustine, a biologist from Metepenagiag First Nation, said there\u2019s no doubt the bass boom is the biggest cause of the salmon\u2019s decline.<\/p>\n

Roth said fewer than 10 per cent of migrating smolts in the Miramichi reach the ocean, compared to 80 per cent in other nearby rivers.<\/p>\n

The difference? \u201cIt’s definitely the massive population of striped bass that we do have in the Miramichi,\u201d Augustine said.<\/p>\n

Federal scientists say other factors can\u2019t be discounted, because the decline is also happening in other rivers with fewer or no bass, including in Europe.<\/p>\n

\"Two<\/p>\n

Joe Augustine, left, of Metapenagiag First Nation works with Anqotum Resource Management. David Roth, right, is a biologist with the Atlantic Salmon Federation. Both men and groups are involved with the smolt trucking project. (Jacques Poitras\/CBC)<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don’t say that striped bass do not eat juvenile salmon,\u201d said Cindy Breau, a DFO biologist based in Moncton.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we are saying is that if we want to answer the question about why salmon are not returning to our rivers, we need to look at larger mechanisms and try to unravel the mechanisms involved with that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Breau suggested one reason Miramichi returns are lower may be the little tracking tags the conservationists insert in the smolts \u2014 weighing them down as they try to outrun hungry bass.<\/p>\n

Climate change is also warming rivers beyond what cold-water salmon can tolerate and may be disrupting the food chains they rely on when they migrate to the ocean, Breau said.<\/p>\n

But Mills said DFO\u2019s science \u201cflies in the face\u201d of research done by conservation groups, providing the department a \u201chalf-baked justification for doing nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not climate-related. It\u2019s not habitat-related. It\u2019s striped bass-related, and if DFO does not see that, they are blind,\u201d he told the House of Commons fisheries committee.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Katie Patles of Anqotum Resource Management tags a smolt as part of the conservation project to save some young salmon from being eaten by striped bass. (Jacques Poitras\/CBC)<\/p>\n

MP says larger bass fishery an easy fix<\/p>\n

Some anglers also point to industrial logging practices that may increase runoff into the rivers and reduce shade that blocked the sun\u2019s heat.<\/p>\n

Acadie-Bathurst MP Serge Cormier says some illegal net fishing may also play a role. But Cormier, an avid angler, said the striped bass clearly have \u201ca big impact.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cormier is a member of the House of Commons fisheries committee, and he persuaded his colleagues to hold hearings this year on the Atlantic salmon.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need solutions. Enough talk,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

While other factors DFO has identified are complicated to address, the MP said reducing the striped bass population with a revived commercial fishery \u201cis the easiest piece to do right now.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Paul McGraw, an economic development officer with the City of Miramichi, makes announcement’s during the Striper Cup, a striped bass fishing tournament that’s become a big tourism draw. (Jacques Poitras\/CBC)<\/p>\n

Ottawa is spending $81.7 million on a 12-year Atlantic salmon strategy that includes climate-resilience measures, Indigenous partnerships and more transparent monitoring of stocks.<\/p>\n

Federal Fisheries Minister Joanne Thompson visited New Brunswick in August and met with the the Atlantic Salmon Federation and Miramichi Salmon Association.<\/p>\n

“Let’s understand that science is the backbone of what we do, but we also pay attention to the people who are closest to the resource,\u201d Thompson said in an interview.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd then if there’s a disconnect, as there is in this instance, what is it that we need to do to find and strike that balance?”<\/p>\n

‘Is it our job to intervene?’<\/p>\n

The Striper Cup has its own science championing the striped bass.<\/p>\n

Dockside at the Striper Cup in May, a team of biologists from Acadia University ran the weigh station for the tournament.<\/p>\n

Competitors returning to Ritchie\u2019s Wharf watched the team rush their fish up to a table and submerge them in a tank before weighing them.<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s winning bass was 9.4 kilograms, or almost 21 pounds, the largest of almost 700 bass caught and released.<\/p>\n

Salmon anglers say that abundance shows the species could withstand a regulated commercial bass fishery.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are not saying that we want to eradicate an entire striper population,\u201d Augustine said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey’re a native species, and it’s important that they stay at decent levels as well, because they’re meant to be here as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the Acadia team said it\u2019s too soon after the bass\u2019s near-collapse to take a chance.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe should be able to long-term monitor before making big decisions,\u201d said Leah Creaser, a Mi\u2019kmaw biologist and Acadia researcher.<\/p>\n

\u201cLike, \u2018that species is doing great, that one is not doing great,\u2019 so there\u2019s a game of picking and choosing because of a lot of social pressures.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Leah Creaser, left, a researcher and student at Acadia University, checks striped bass during the weigh-in at the Miramichi Striper Cup. (Jacques Poitras\/CBC)<\/p>\n

Trevor Avery, the Acadia professor and biostatistician who leads the team, said it\u2019s \u201creally hard to pit one species against another\u201d when the ecosystem is more dynamic than a simple \u201csmoking gun\u201d scenario.<\/p>\n

Creaser said the rebound and growth of the striped bass on the Miramichi may be an example of evolutionary history unfolding in real time.<\/p>\n

\u201cIs it our job to intervene? I\u2019m not sure.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

A changing camp on a changing river<\/p>\n

As the debate continues, some salmon outfitters have resigned themselves to a different Miramichi.<\/p>\n

Wilson\u2019s Sporting Camps, a lodge that dates back to 1855, has branched out into canoeing, tubing, corporate retreats, weddings, and, yes, even striped bass fishing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s to the point now where our river is almost dead,\u201d co-owner Karl Wilson said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s very few fish out there \u2026 and it doesn’t seem like anybody’s really doing anything about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Everyone is \u201cpointing the finger at one another\u201d while waiting for Ottawa to act, Wilson said. <\/p>\n

\u201cIn my opinion, it’s almost too far gone.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Karl Wilson, who runs Wilson’s Sporting Camps, says he’s seen declines on the river that have forced his business to pivot to include other outdoor sports and experiences beyond salmon angling. (Jacques Poitras\/CBC)<\/p>\n

Joe Augustine, though, remains optimistic.<\/p>\n

His community\u2019s long history with the Atlantic salmon runs through his great-grandfather, who could catch enough salmon in a day to feed his entire family for a summer.<\/p>\n

Augustine said his father, as a child, \u201ccould hear the salmon run coming up the river to spawn. It would keep him up at night.\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no choice but to be optimistic, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to believe that the salmon numbers are going to come back,” he said. “Or then what are we doing this work for?\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve hit critical levels, but we’ve seen striped bass hit critical levels 20 to 25 years ago, and now look at them back in our river. It\u2019s crazy, the amount \u2014 maybe, definitely, a little too much.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut if it can be done with striped bass, why can’t it be done with Atlantic salmon?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Every veteran salmon angler, guide and outfitter in the Miramichi watershed remembers their first encounter with a striped…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":937779,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-937778","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/937778","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=937778"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/937778\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/937779"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=937778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=937778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=937778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}