Plunging salmon pool prices highlight stock's decline, anglers say
Most minimum bids in province’s once-a-decade Crown angling lease auction drop 40 to 75 per cent
The New Brunswick government has dramatically dropped the price for leases on a group of publicly owned salmon pools once considered among the most prized and lucrative fishing spots in North America.
Those 10-year leases are up for bids this week and give lessees the right to fish renowned Crown salmon pools on the Miramichi, Restigouche and other rivers.
The auction catalogue shows the province has dropped minimum bids, known as "upset prices," for pools in the Miramichi system by 75 per cent compared to the 2013 auction.
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The upset price for Square Forks, which is on the Big Sevogle River, has dropped from $49,800 in 2013 to $12,450 this year.
Upset prices on the Restigouche are down by 40 per cent. The river's Cross Point lease, which carried an upset price of $87,300 in 2013, is now priced at $52,380.
Salmon pools on New Brunswick rivers like the Northwest Miramichi once fetched high lease prices but have started to get sharp price reductions. (Shane Fowler/CBC)
Other leases on the Kedgwick, Upsalquitch, Tabusintac and other rivers have also been discounted by 50 to 55 per cent.
The Department of Natural Resources refused to make anyone available for an interview about why the leases have lost so much value.
The department also refused to say what the inflation-indexed lease payments were this year.
In an emailed statement, spokesperson Nick Brown said the upset prices for the 2025 auction were determined by a third party that he did not identify.
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"The appraisals considered a range of factors, including comparable private land transactions, Atlantic salmon returns, and catch statistics," he said.
Bradford Burns, an angler and guide from Maine who fishes on the Miramichi, said a 90 per cent decline in Atlantic salmon stocks in the last 15 years is likely to blame.
Bradford Burns, an angler and guide from Maine who fishes on the Miramichi, says a steep decline in salmon stocks over the last several years is likely the cause of the price reduction. (Jacques Poitras/CBC)
"I wouldn't be surprised if they have great difficulty even getting bids on many of the properties," he said.
"It isn't like you went out and instead of catching 10 fish, you caught one fish. It may be that you go days and days and not catch any at all, or even see any, because there aren't any there."
Burns is part of a lawsuit along with five other anglers and lodge owners filed against the federal government over the fate of the salmon.
Alex Mills, a lawyer and lodge owner who used to help assess the value of pools, and who is also part of the legal case, agreed.
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"From having worked in the field of salmon pools for most my career, I know there's a correlation between catches and runs and the values of properties and the values of leases," Mills said.
The claim argues that management decisions by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans have led to explosive growth in the Miramichi's striped bass population, which it says is "aggressively preying" on salmon smolts.
"It's a great fishery, there's no doubt about it," Mills said of the striped bass, "but it's going to consume the Atlantic salmon fishery, and the economics and the culture and everything that goes with it."
The Department of Fisheries and Oceans did not immediately respond to a request for a comment.
A spokesperson for DFO said the department would not comment while the lawsuit is in court.
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The new auction was due in 2023 but was delayed because of the COVID-19 pandemic and last year's provincial election, according to Brown.
Two leases auctioned in 2013, for the Grog Brook pool on the Upsalquitch and the Rafting Grounds pool on the Restigouche, are not being auctioned this time.
The two lessees who won the bidding for those pools gave them up in 2017 and 2021, respectively, Brown said.
"No decision has been made for these stretches of Crown waters … and both areas remain under the stewardship of the minister of natural resources," he said.
This article, written by Jacques Poitras, was originally published for CBC News