NH is home to a number of anadromous fish who come in from the ocean to spawn in New Hampshire's rivers. The only problem is that their path to their breeding ground is anything but clear.
I'm Iain MacLeod from New Hampshire Audubon, and this is Something Wild.
New Hampshire is lucky in that we have not one, but two major rivers that flow through the state - the Connecticut and the Merrimack. Because both of these rivers end up at the ocean, they both have populations of anadromous fish: fish that split their time between fresh water and the ocean.
You might have heard that salmon are born in fresh-water streams and spend their formative years there. Then they swim downstream and spend the next few years in the ocean. When they are ready to breed, they swim back upstream, to the streams where they were born, to spawn.
Salmon are not our only anadromous fish. We have two species of river herring, as well as American shad. All need to get back up the river to spawn, produce their young and rebuild the population.
The problem is, getting back upstream isn't that easy. There are dams: big dams that generate electricity, and smaller dams, which often aren't used for anything anymore.
The resource agencies and utility owners have worked hard to make sure that adult fish and their young can swim downstream. On the Merrimack, the bigger dams south of Manchester all have fish passages to help migrating fish get back up to their breeding grounds, but these don't work the same as a free-flowing river. Biologists and utility owners are trying to improve the fishways, which would allow greater numbers of fish to continue their journey upstream.
There are also smaller, obsolete dams on tributaries that fish can't get by. It might seem like a no-brainer to just remove the dams that are no longer being used, but many of those dams have historical importance or are a cultural part of a community, and it can be argued that they should be preserved for those reasons. Each dam is different, and each can be considered for either removal or for improved fish passage.
It's an enormous problem, and not one with a simple solution. Let's hope we can solve it, so we can keep the cycle of fish migration and reproduction going, and future generations can enjoy this natural rite of passage.
Something Wild is a joint production of New Hampshire Audubon, New Hampshire Public Radio, and the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests. For Something Wild, I'm Iain MacLeod.
