Plan Seeks To Reverse Gulf Of Maine Salmon Decline
by Laurie Schreiber
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AUGUSTA — Federal and state agencies have joined to together to try to stop the steep decline of Atlantic salmon populations in eight Maine rivers.
The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) recently announced the final recovery plan for endangered Atlantic salmon in Gulf of Maine rivers. The plan was developed by NMFS with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) and the Augusta-based Maine Atlantic Salmon Commission (MASC).
The Final Recovery Plan for the Gulf of Maine Distinct Population Segment of Atlantic Salmon, published in November, is the latest step in trying save salmon populations in Maine, said MASC Executive Director Pat Keliher.
The recovery program builds on continuing conservation efforts, most notably actions in the 1997 Atlantic Salmon Conservation Plan for Seven Maine Rivers. A number of groups, such as Project SHARE, the Maine Technical Advisory Committee, local watershed councils, and recreational fishing groups such as the Atlantic Salmon Federation and Trout Unlimited, are engaged in cooperative conservation activities.
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Atlantic salmon spawning? with the help of technology. Pure oxygen is injected into the anesthetized salmon. The 4 PSI of pressure causes the eggs to pour out. This 10 lb fish will produce about 8,000 eggs. The eggs are fertilized using males that release sperm. The program goal is to increase populations in several Maine rivers to a point where natural spawning rates maintain a balanced population. Photo: Craig Brook National Fish Hatchery |
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One Man's Meat
by Mike Crowe
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Jonathan Cilley, 35 year old freshman Representative from Thomaston, Maine died in a planned shoot out near Washington, D.C., before friends and others who had gathered as witnesses. The act was marginally illegal, and a common occurrence in1838. Western expansion and north-south power struggles were the backdrop to the partisan congressional politics that enabled it to happen.
The Alexander Hamilton – Aaron Burr duel overshadows the Cilley incident in American history. Burr was Vice President to Thomas Jefferson when he killed Hamilton, the first Secretary of the Treasury, in 1804. Hamilton had set up a successful treasury for the new republic after the revolution. Both were experienced at the duel, Hamilton had been in 11 duels before the fatal one. Burr was widely criticized for the shooting and fled to the south, where he attempted to establish a separate nation in the southwest.
A lesser known duel on the nearly official dueling grounds just outside Washington, D.C., in Bladensburg, Maryland was between Maine Representative Jonathan Cilley, of Thomaston and William Graves, a Representative from Kentucky. While a perceived slight could precipitate a challenge to duel, the justifications ran from the absurdly trivial, to political motivations and social climbing. The fallout from Cilley’s death however, overshadows the Hamilton-Burr duel in its impact on attitudes toward dueling.
Jonathan Cilley was born at Nottingham, N.H., July 2, 1802. His grandfather, Colonel Joseph Cilley, commanded a New Hampshire regiment during the Revolutionary War. Joseph’s son Greenleaf, died in 1808, leaving a family of four sons and three daughters. Son Jonathan, sought a liberal education, studied at Atkinson Academy, was later a member of the freshman class of Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Me., in 1821. He inherited little property from his father, and like many young New Englander’s in similar circumstances, earned a small income by teaching a country school during the winter months, before and after he started college.
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| Jonathan Cilley, junior Representative from Thomaston, Maine, was a respected congressman who spoke his mind. But was unable to escape the hostile web of partisan politics. He is remembered less for what he did than how he died. |
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