First Nations fighting to save St. John River salmon, as DFO closes support facility

Leonard Nicholas sees Atlantic salmon differently than most New Brunswickers might — he sees them as relatives or ancestors.

“They’ve been here just as long as we have,” said Nicholas, who is Tobique First Nation’s fishery strategy director. “That’s why we’ve been trying so hard to save them.”

The Tobique River that Nicholas calls home is a tributary of the Wolastoq, or St. John River. The river system held tens of thousands salmon as recently as the 1980s. Now only a few hundred return to the river’s Mactaquac Dam annually, according to counts from the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans.

The population is struggling but DFO’s Mactaquac Biodiversity Facility has been helping to keep it alive.

“The analogy would be that the patient is alive, but it definitely is not healthy,” said UNB biologist Tommi Linnansaari.

“So we’re keeping the patient, the proverbial patient, on a machine. But if we would pull it out from that machine, it would immediately die,”

The facility moved salmon upriver past three hydroelectric dams and also raised juvenile salmon from the river before releasing them upriver to reproduce.

DFO is closing that facility in the fall.

WATCH | First Nations don’t know what the future will look like without DFO’s help:

First Nations trying to save St. John River salmon

First Nations say their work to save salmon in the St. John River will get harder following the closure of DFO’s Mactaquac Biodiversity Facility.

Christine Lyons, a DFO spokesperson, said “despite 25 years of significant efforts,” salmon returns remain low.

First Nations and biologists say the closure will result in the end of salmon in the Wolastoq, which are referred to by DFO and scientists as outer Bay of Fundy salmon.

Nicholas found out about the closure in January, and then in February he was told DFO won’t help him transport or raise the spring run of juveniles.

“To just spring it on us the same year that they’re closing it down without giving us any proper warning, any proper consultation, it was a real gut punch and I’ve been scrambling ever since,” he said.

Nicholas works with a team that collects juvenile salmon from above N.B. Power’s Tobique River dam.

Water rushing through an opening in a concrete wall. — Fish pass through N.B. Power’s Tobique Dam by going down this fishway. (Oliver Pearson/CBC)

The salmon come through a fishway, which is a ramp at the top of the dam that guides fish into a collection pool. DFO used to collect the fish, take them to their facility, and raise them before returning them above the dam to reproduce.

Now, Nicholas has juveniles, also known as smolts, coming through the fishway with no one to raise them. While he figures out a plan, the Canadian Rivers Institute at UNB, which is a collective of researchers across the country trying to improve rivers, has been helping out.

The not-for-profit institute has been transporting the smolts below the Mactaquac Dam.

A small juvenile salmon in a pale of water. — Juvenile salmon, also know as smolts, are collected by Tobique Dam’s fishway before being moved downriver. Some of the fish are tagged by the Canadian Rivers Institute so they can be tracked. (Aniekan Etuhube/CBC)

At Tobique, around 2,600 smolts were collected last year and around 350 were collected during this year’s fall run.

Linnansaari, who is also a fellow with the Canadian Rivers Institute, said research done by his students at UNB show those smolts, which are around five inches long, have less than a one per cent chance of migrating to the ocean and returning home to reproduce.

Endangered status delayed

John Perley was Tobique First Nation’s fisheries director for 30 years. When he started, salmon were returning by the thousands.

Watching the population dwindle, he questions why the federal government doesn’t recognize the Wolastoq salmon as endangered.

He thinks politics is getting in the way of the species being included under the federal government’s Species at Risk Act, or SARA. The SARA process gives final decision-making power to federal politicians, which in this case would be the the minister of fisheries and the minister of environment, climate change and nature.

A man in a construction uniform standing in front of water. — John Perley remembers when salmon returned by the thousands up the Tobique River. (Oliver Pearson/CBC)

The process starts with a study of the population’s health, which is handled by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada. A committee of scientists uses the study to appraise the population and gives it a designation, such as endangered or threatened.

Bruce Leaman joined the committee in 2019 and finished his term on the marine fishes committee, which covers Atlantic salmon, last year.

The scientists assessed the outer Bay of Fundy salmon as endangered in 2010 and again in 2025. Leaman contributed to the 2025 assessment. The assessments blamed dams, invasive species, pollution and climate change for the population’s decline.

Leaman said from 1993 to 2024 the population declined by 80 per cent. But, he has found that marine fishes, more often than not, don’t make it on the government’s endangered list no matter how dire the situation is.

“You spend a lot of work and time and analysis trying to demonstrate something and then it may not actually get listed,” said Leaman.

“It is a bit frustrating to see something that happened in 2010, with the recommendation endangered, and things haven’t changed. In fact, they’ve gotten worse since that time.”

A man in a yellow hat and orange jacket with a white backpack on. — Bruce Leaman was the co-chair of COSEWIC’s marine fishes committee up until last year. (Submitted by Bruce Leaman)

The federal minister goes beyond science when making decisions, Leaman said. The decision includes socio-economic factors like commercial and recreational fisheries as well as power generation. The minister also accepts public comments about the species status.

Linnansaari is also frustrated with the SARA process, which he calls “painful.” He said “social-political reasons” keep species away from endangered status, because if a species is listed as endangered, it comes with a recovery plan to address the factors causing the population’s decline.

Wolastoqey take their concerns to Ottawa

Patrick Polchies, Kingsclear First Nation’s fisheries manager, has watched the Wolastoq change.

Kingsclear, also known as Bilijk, is just west of Fredericton at the foot of the Mactaquac Dam and down river from Tobique First Nation.

Polchies, alongside community member Chad Solomon and Bilijk Chief Justice Gruben appeared before the House of Commons fisheries and oceans committee in June, and took questions from MPs about Atlantic salmon populations.

Two men in suits sitting at a table in front of microphones. — Patrick Polchies, left, and Bilijk Chief Justice Gruben, spoke in front of the House of Commons Fisheries and Oceans committee in June. (House of Commons)

Polchies told the committee that salmon have been swimming through the Wolastoq for as long as his ancestors have lived there.

“It kind of defies logic that the most endangered salmon have not seen any attention,” Polchies told the committee.

“In fact, the only attention they saw was the government shutting down the biodiversity facility. It doesn’t really make sense to me.”

Gruben told the committee that the Wolastoqey would like DFO to continue helping outer Bay of Fundy salmon.

Feds won’t take a stance on endangered status

Amélie Desmarais, a spokesperson for Environment and Climate Change Canada, said DFO is the “lead for aquatic species at-risk.”

Desmarais said the fisheries minister will provide its advice to the minister of the environment, climate change and nature. Then a recommendation is shared with the Governor-in-Council, who is responsible for the final listing decision.

Prior to the 2025 assessment, DFO hadn’t made a decision on whether or not the outer Bay of Fundy salmon should be listed as endangered.

Naomi Librach, a DFO spokesperson, said the 2010 assessment decision had been delayed “for multiple reasons.”

Librach said delays were caused by the complexity of the analysis, the variety of interests and perspectives to consider, and the potential implications of a decision on whether to list.

An aerial photo of a large concrete dam on a river. — When the federal government considers listing a species as endangered they consider socio-economic factors like hydroelectric dams and commercial fisheries. There are three dams in the St. John River system, including this one in Tobique. (Aniekan Etuhube/CBC)

Once the federal government receives the new 2025 assessment the decision process will start over again.

Fisheries Minister Joanne Thompson’s office declined an interview request.

Lyons said DFO “will continue to work with key partners, including Indigenous communities, on the conservation and protection of wild Atlantic salmon.”

“DFO recognizes the cultural and spiritual importance of wild Atlantic salmon to the Wolastoqey.”