Marine Ecology of Gulf of Maine Atlantic Salmon -- Summary Document from a 2008-2010 Series of Workshops

Present-day Atlantic salmon losses at sea are higher than documented prior to 1990 but scientists and managers are often overwhelmed at the scale of the issue and multiple unknowns. This is confounded by the small biomass of salmon in a large ecosystem-- a needle in a haystack. Maine Sea Grant provided convening and facilitation services to a project sponsored by NOAA Fisheries to bring together marine scientists of multiple disciplines to discuss and develop: 1) testable hypotheses to advance our understanding of current low marine survival of Atlantic salmon and 2) management prescriptions to increase marine survival. A series of workshops between 2008-2010, summarized in the final report, captured the most pressing needs for estuarine-marine Atlantic salmon research and management opportunities.