The Saco River

"You'd have to cover far more miles on a typical "Downeast" river to see the same amount of habitat (referring to the Big Ossipee). . . .If the Ossipee flowed directly into the ocean bypassing the 6 downstream dams on the Saco, it would be one of the best salmon rivers in the state."

- Atlantic Salmon Commission Biologist

Tributary Temperature Logging Results from Last Year

The Saco River
The Saco River is over 120 miles long with a watershed of over 1,700 square miles making it the 4th largest river in Maine. The restoration project is focused on restoring salmon to the Saco's tributaries from the ocean to the New Hampshire border.

Although the Saco is dammed in many places, there are many positive aspects of the river that make the restoration project possible. The river is one of the cleanest in the state and the chemical composition is suitable for salmon reproduction.

Get out and enjoy the Big O!
If you are interested in seeing the type of habitat our salmon and other cold water species prefer, then you may want to take a canoe trip on the Saco's largest tributary. You might just think you're in Northern Maine if you do!

The Tributaries
The Saco River has many cold water tributaries ideally suited for raising salmon fry and parr. Some of these tributaries are surprisingly close to the ocean and are of special interest to the club. These are the areas where intensive habitat surveys and electrofishing take place. The goal is to restore natural runs of salmon here first since the returning fish have the most direct path to suitable spawning habitat.

The Dams

What makes restoration challenging is dealing with the large number of dams on the Saco River. Florida Power and Light has installed fish lifts on the first two dams with the second dam, Skelton, having a state of the art lift - one of the highest lifts in the nation. At this location, salmon are trucked to spawning habitat. There are still problems with this situation however as federal law prohibits moving salmon when the water temperature exceeds 22 degrees Celsius. Unfortunately, this temperature is reached fairly early in the salmon run meaning that many salmon are essentially trapped for long periods of time at the Skelton dam. Another problem may be the loss of smolts returning to the ocean. First, the fish must run the gauntlet of warm water predators in the "ponds" created by the dams during their emigration, next, a percentage of smolts will be killed in the turbines (with six dams to run, this number could potentially be extremely high). Last, the smolts that do make it past the last dam get funneled through a shoot with many predators waiting at the exit - a very easy meal for the stripers and sea birds to name a few.
More research is needed in this area to fully understand the implications.