Comment from Douglas Introne, Veazie Salmon Club/Univ of Maine

Dear NOAA/NMFS, I urge you to consider listing altantic salmon as threatened in the Penobscot River (DSP) rather than endangered. These fish certainly deserve protection, and there is a long history of conservation practices, and habitat preservation by 1000's of salmon anglers who live along the banks of the Penobscot. This year 2115 fish returned and all of them were the products of prior stocking efforts. Listing them as threatened does'nt necessarily follow the letter of the law as these fish are the product of hatchery animal husbandry and are not in fact wild fish who spawned naturally in the river and returned. The river is stocked and has been stocked for over 100 years. At this time many dams block both upstream migration of spawners and downstream migration of smolts rendering natural spawning basically non existant. These dams are currently in the process of being removed. They have been purchased already and funds are being generated by anglers and others so that when they are removed the prospect of natural spawning will be greatly increased. However, at this point in time, with all the stocking being done and with the dams still in place, the fish can hardly be considered wild fish nor are they natural spawners. It is basically a stock/grow/restock system. Once the dams are removed, then stocking hopefully can be reduced, and more and more natural spawning will take place. Until that time the listing as "endangered" seems premature at best and it certainly will not help with garnering support of new and willing conservationists on the river. Once the disconnect takes place between the anglers who have sacrificed so much for the river and the fish, it will be lost forever and will be very hard to bring back. Particularly new and younger folks will fail to be brought into the conservation fold. Our younger sportsmen are our future hope and they will be lost. Douglas Introne Orono, ME.