Three quarter million salmon eggs destroyed in Massachusetts

However, the eggs represented less than seven percent of the salmon juveniles to be stocked in the Connecticut River watershed in the coming year, according to an article in The Republican, a Springfield, Massachusetts newspaper. The virus is difficult to detect in salmon and trout, and is highly contagious. Once it infects young fish, it can spread quickly. It does not harm humans. Last month, about 100 wild Atlantic salmon being held as brood stock at the Sunderland station were destroyed after two fish tested positive for IPN. This is the first time the virus is detected in New England waterways. Federal wildlife officials have been trying to reintroduce a wild salmon population to the river by capturing returning salmon, harvesting and hatching their eggs, and then seeding spawning ground with the young fish. The agency hopes they will "imprint" on the river and return to it after their time at sea. The Cronin station was built in 1982, the year the salmon restoration program was started.