Over 7 Million Salmon Fry Have Been
Released Since 1985

Photography by Michel Poitras, DRONEAST
Michel Piotras also is Pabineau’s Aquaculture technician.

AFS Salmon Enhancement Project
Salmon Counting Fence

Male Salmon

Female Salmon

A grilse salmon is between 17 inches to 25 inches total length, and a salmon is a fish over 25 inches.

Training Update:

9 Pabineau First Nation salmon enhancement technicians/monitors were trained in streamside fertilization procedures; such as, learning about parts that is required to assemble a streamside fertilization unit; in addition to equipment maintenance & operation. Other training included: collecting healthy broodstock salmon and grilse, recognizing & identifying salmon disease, stripping salmon of its eggs and fertilizing salmon those eggs.

Electrofishing training on safety and operation, fish species, fish habitat, and water quality measurement were done throughout Pabineau First Nation’s traditional rivers and brooks.

Final report on all training activities will be completed on or before March 31, 2022.

Broodstock Salmon Ready For Stripping

Stripping The Eggs Out From The Salmon

Fact: salmon have approximately 900 eggs for every pound the salmon weights, so if the salmon weights 10 pounds, it should yeild 9,000 eggs.

To date, we have 100,115 salmon eggs transported to Charlo Fish Hatchery to be maintained over the winter months, and in May 2022 the salmon eggs will be transferred back to the Nepisiguit River for the incubation stage, and by early June they will be released back into the river as a Fry stage; which is approximately 1 inch in length.

Salmon Counting Fence
Salmon Counting Fence
Salmon Cuonting Fence
PFN_CountingFence2021_1
PFN_CountingFence2021_2
PFN_CountingFence2021_3
PFN_CountingFence2021_4
PFN_CountingFence2021_5
PFN_CountingFence2021_6
PFN_CountingFence2021_7
Previous
Next
In a collaborative effort to support the enhancement of a healthy salmon population within the Nepisiguit and Pabineau Rivers, the Pabineau First Nation has been involved in the operation and management of a salmon counting and brood stock collection fence since 1981.

The counting and brood stock collection fence, which is the largest of its kind in the Province of New Brunswick, is designed to provide the crucial, ground level research to maintaining and enhancing our understanding of the rate of return of fish as well as the health of the Nepisiguit and Pabineau watershed habitat for wild Atlantic salmon.

Beyond this, the Pabineau First Nation provides the nearby Charlo Salmonid Enhancement Center with healthy male and female adult salmon, suitable for the annual propagation of broodstock, the offspring of which is released back into the river system every year. Our salmon enhancement efforts have helped to transform the Nepisiguit and Pabineau Rivers into two of the hardiest wild streams in North America.  In the process, the Pabineau First Nation has earned the abiding respect and admiration of riverkeepers everywhere.

The Pabineau Salmon Enhancement Center employs an average of 10 band members every summer and fall, who are all committed to the propagation and protection of the Atlantic Salmon.  The Pabineau Salmon Enhancement Center is situated on the Nepisiguit River, just below Prisk Island, behind the Pabineau Powwow Grounds.

1290 Pabineau Falls Road,
Pabineau First Nation, NB E2A 7M3
office: 506 548-9211 fax: 506 545-6968

Keep in touch