For the first time in a generation, Maine is quietly asking whether it might one day allow fishing for wild Atlantic salmon again — a species that has been off-limits in the state since 1999 and listed as endangered since 2000.
The state's Department of Marine Resources has written to federal regulators to explore whether the Endangered Species Act itself could offer new tools to speed the salmon's recovery. In a June 4 letter to the National Marine Fisheries Service, DMR Commissioner Carl Wilson asked NOAA to evaluate whether the law could "provide additional flexibility to expand Atlantic salmon recovery efforts" while keeping existing federal protections in place. NOAA has confirmed it received the letter but has not said whether it will act.
At the center of the request is a provision of the Endangered Species Act that allows managers to designate reintroduced populations as "nonessential experimental" — an approach never used for a species in Maine, but one NOAA has applied to salmon and steelhead in California, Oregon and Washington, and that federal agencies have used for gray wolves, California condors and whooping cranes.
DMR is careful to frame the idea as being in service of recovery, not sport. But the department also argues that giving the public a stake in the fish could sustain the decades-long restoration effort. "Recovery remains DMR's primary objective," said Sean Ledwin, who directs the department's Bureau of Sea Run Fisheries and Habitat, but "rebuilding the public's connection to Atlantic salmon and Maine's rivers is also key to sustaining long-term conservation." He added that "throughout North America, fisheries have often helped create the public support, funding, and partnerships needed to sustain long-term restoration efforts."
The science is a sober counterweight to that optimism. A 2026 study led by John Kocik of NOAA's Atlantic Salmon Ecosystems Branch in Orono found that the population remains hatchery-dependent, with natural smolt production of about 1,689 fish a year — far below the conservation target of 14,000 to 21,000. The bigger problem, the study concluded, lies at sea: "Low marine survival rate is a main obstacle to recovery," with wild-origin fish returning at a rate of less than 1 percent and stocked hatchery smolts faring dramatically worse.
Conservation groups, meanwhile, are keeping their focus on the rivers. The Atlantic Salmon Federation says its top priority is "opening habitat for salmon, removing barriers and improving access" — code for tearing out dams and improving fish passage. That work is advancing: a deal announced with dam owner Brookfield Renewable and The Nature Conservancy is set to clear the way for removing the four lowermost dams on the Kennebec River, reopening more than 800 miles of stream to sea-run fish over roughly a decade.
There are encouraging signs. On the Penobscot, where dams have already come down, the Atlantic Salmon Federation counted 561 adult salmon returning in 2021 and 1,324 the following year. But marine survival has fallen sharply over 35 years — the result of changing prey, shifting ocean currents and warming waters — and remains largely beyond any single state's control.
Wilson's letter does not propose opening a season anytime soon. Even under the most optimistic reading, any "conservation-oriented recreational fishery" would be years away and contingent on the fish rebounding first. What Maine is really testing is whether the promise of fishing — someday, carefully, catch-and-release — can help rally the money and public will that recovery still badly needs.