Native Fish Coalition E.D. Bob Mallard has written a powerful critique of the Atlantic salmon's plight.
NFC's Emily Bastian with Downeast Salmon Federation's Executive Director Dwayne Shaw
While in fresh water, Atlantic salmon are vulnerable to misidentification and incidental mortality at the hands of anglers. Most waters are open to bait, which comes with a 30 percent incidental mortality rate, and there is no way to avoid encountering juvenile, and even adult, salmon. Both the DMR and the IFW have placed 25-inch maximum length limits on landlocked salmon and brown trout in rivers and streams to help protect adult Atlantic salmon from misidentification, but only the DMR also mandates a minimum length limit—14 inches—to protect juvenile salmon from harvest. The IFW has a 14-inch limit on land- locked salmon, but the limit on browns, easily confused with Atlantic salmon and present in some Atlantic salmon watersheds, is just 6 inches.
You can read more in the complete article here: https://nativefishcoalition.org/blog/2020/11/16/nfc-executive-director-bob-mallard-chimes-in-on-maines-endangered-atlantic-salmon-american-fly-fishing
Our mutual friends at American Fly Fishing magazine are also covering the article in their latest issue's Conservation section and you can find that article here: https://www.americanflyfishing.com/