Parr Project Reports
Downeast Salmon Habitat Recovery Unit Committee Report 2021
Analysis of data from the project indicates that PGPP salmon return from the sea to spawn up to 14 times the rate of fish raised and stocked using other hatchery techniques. Given the PGPP’s superior performance, the Downeast Salmon Federation and agency partners proposed implementing an expansion project by adding a second, river-specific genetically distinct strain of Atlantic Salmon to the PGPP. The second strain of fish will be specific to the Narraguagus River, also located in the Downeast SHRU.
Peter Gray Parr Project Summary 2012-19
The 60 redds found in the East Machias River in 2019 is the highest observed looking all the way back to 1991 and 6 times the average of the past two decades. The average SAR resulting from the Project (2.117%) is 2 times greater than the previous 5-year average SARs for naturally reared salmon on the Narraguagus River (1.055%) and nearly 20 times greater than return rates of smolt stocked salmon on the Penobscot River (0.107%) (USASAC 2020). To be concise, per capita, the Peter Gray Parr Project method returns more adult salmon than other stocking strategies being used in Maine.