Sentient Media: Mainers Fight to Protect Wild Salmon From Fish Farms
September 2, 2026
Sentient Media – Gaea Cabico
August 31, 2026
“For more than three decades, Dwayne Shaw has fought to keep wild Atlantic salmon from disappearing in Maine. As the executive director of the Downeast Salmon Federation, he helps operate hatcheries and restore rivers and watersheds where the last remaining wild Atlantic salmon in the United States exist. The Atlantic salmon fisheries closed in the 1940s after dams, pollution and overfishing drove the population into decline. “We have secured them, to an extent. However, they remain at critically low levels,” Shaw tells Sentient.
Now, Shaw worries that the recovery of Maine’s endangered wild salmon could be jeopardized by other salmon: those raised in open-net cages along the coast.”