The President's Salmon: Restoring the King of Fish and its Home Waters [Hardcover]

The Penobscot Salmon Club, comprised of Maine recreational fishers, presented the U.S. president with the first Atlantic salmon caught each spring from 1912 to 1992. Schmitt ties the annual presentation to an account of the health of the Penobscot River salmon fishery from abundance to decline and then revival in the 1990s. Battles among conservation and environmental interests and large corporations, state and federal fishery management groups, and loggers and mill owners are described. The book combines information on developments on the world and national scenes with updates on the status of salmon populations in Maine rivers and traces changing attitudes of governmental bodies on fishery regulation. A discussion of hatcheries and their effect on wild populations is included. Notes at the end of each chapter and a selected bibliography provide further information. VERDICT Conservation-minded readers who enjoyed Paul Greenbergs Four Fish, those interested in natural history, fishers, and both Maine residents and visitors will appreciate this well-written work.The salmon pools of Maine achieved legendary status among anglers and since 1912, it was tradition to present the first salmon caught in the Penobscot River each spring to the U.S. President. The last salmon presented was in 1992, to George W. Bush. That year, the Penobscot accounted for more than 70 percent of the salmon returns on the entire Eastern seaboard, yet that was only 2 percent of the river's historic populations. Due to commercial over harvesting, damming, and environmental degradation of the fish's home waters, Atlantic salmon populations had been decimated.The salmon is said to be as old as time and to know all the past and future. Twenty-two thousand years ago, someone carved a life-sized image of Atlantic salmon in the floor of a cave in southern France. Salmon were painted on rocks in Norway and Sweden. The Celts mythologized the salmon as holder of all mysterious knowledge. The President'l“G