Even with the very slow, cold, and wet start to our 2018 field season, our May programs have been very successful! The month started with assisting the Atlantic Salmon Federation (ASF) with their Kelt Tracking Program. We tagged 24 Kelt with internal acoustic transmitters and released them back into the River. These transmitters emit a signal that is picked up every time the fish swims past receivers that have been placed in the river from just above the Red Bank Bridge out to the Estuary. There are also two receiver lines at the Strait of Belle Ilse and one at the Cabot Strait. We are excited to see how far these Salmon will go!

The MSA worked in conjunction with ASF to collect 80 smolts from the Northwest Miramichi River to tag with internal acoustic transmitters to track their movements and survival out of the Miramichi River into the marine environment.

Our smolt collection for the CAST program (SAS – Smolt to Adult Supplementation) in 2018 was a great success! We were able to collect all 5000 smolts from the Little Southwest within a couple of weeks and these fish are now happily swimming in the tanks in our quarantine facility at the Miramichi Salmon Conservation Centre. They have started feeding and will be getting weekly baths to make sure they stay clean and healthy. We now have 4 year classes of salmon collected for the CAST program and are hoping to release some soon.