Peter Gray Hatchery Update  
DSF's East Machias Facility that houses the Peter Gray Hatchery - 13 Willow St. East Machias, Maine 04630
An early morning sun over a frozen Downeast Maine lake
2020 friends! Holy smokes...a new year and a new decade with the Peter Gray Parr Project still here working hard to restore Atlantic salmon. Thank you all for taking the time out of your day to check out this update.

The Downeast Salmon Federation’s solar-assisted Peter Gray Hatchery is getting ready to receive the next batch of Atlantic salmon eggs from PGPP partners, the US Fish and Wildlife Service. Entering our ninth year of operation, the Peter Gray Parr Project (PGPP) is proving to be a very successful Atlantic salmon stocking program and partnership. The following few sentences are a brief summary of the observed impacts of the PGPP. Our work to rewild the salmon, the hatchery, and the river is providing great successes for the salmon population of the East Machias River. The density (or number in the river) of juvenile ( parr) salmon in the river is the highest seen since the 1970s. The number of those salmon making their way out to the ocean ( smolts ) has more than quadrupled from the previous stocking strategy of unfed fry that was used on the river. Thanks to the PGPP, the number of redds (salmon nests) counted in the river in 2019 are the highest seen for three decades and six times the average number of redds from the past two decades!

Our facility on the Pleasant River is also getting ready to receive eggs and help PGPP partners, Maine Department of Marine Resources - Jonesboro office, with some egg planting (more in the next update on that). We have been raising endangered Atlantic salmon and providing public outreach at this facility since the early 1990’s. Like the Peter Gray Hatchery , the Pleasant River Hatchery (PRH) is also a stream-side hatchery utilizing unfiltered river water to raise salmon. Due to the success seen with Peter Gray Hatchery on the East Machias River, DSF also utilizes many of those techniques at the PRH. The unfiltered river water allows the salmon to experience the temperature regimes, pH fluctuations, food inputs, and bacteria found naturally occurring in the river water. The PRH also utilizes the substrate incubation boxes that allow alevin (baby salmon) to develop among media that simulates river gravel and emerge from the boxes at the same time fish in the river would be emerging from salmon redds. Use of these naturalized hatchery methods has shown success with 15 redds observed in the lower part of the Pleasant River in 2019! There were 30 redds total, observed by the Maine DMR during their redd counts of the upper and lower parts of the river. These redds were created by adult salmon that resulted from either egg planting or DSF's fry stocking.

If you are new to receiving these updates and would like to catch up on some you have missed, please visit our website here . If there are any of your friends you think would enjoy this content please share with them or let us know their email address to add to the list!

If you like the work we are doing, please considering donating towards the continuation of the Peter Gray Parr Project .

We hope this update finds you well and you enjoyed reading about the Peter Gray Parr Project . Thank you for all you have done, and continue to do, in the pursuit of Atlantic salmon restoration!

Kind Regards,

Peter Gray Hatchery Staff 
TAX DEDUCTION!
CHARITABLE DONATION!   
WE ARE STILL IN NEED OF TRUCKS!!!!
Are you a business owner or individual looking for a tax deduction in 2019? Looking to trade in your truck for a new one this year? Would you like a tax deduction at a value higher then you would get for your trade-in? Please consider donating that pickup to the Downeast Salmon Federation. The Downeast Salmon Federation is a 501-c3, so your truck donation will give you a tax deduction equivalent to the Kelly Blue Book private sale value of your truck. The only thing we ask is that the truck is mechanically sound, has an inspection sticker or would take one, and that the truck is 4 wheel drive.

Currently, we don’t have trucks to accomplish all of the important, boots-on-ground projects that are taken on each year. These tasks include stocking salmon, habitat restoration, assessment of projects, land stewardship along rivers, etc. If this is something you are interested in and want to help us better Downeast Maine’s ecosystems please contact zach@mainesalmonrivers.org or call 207-255-0676 . 
You can also support the Downeast Salmon Federation by purchasing some swag! Hats, sweatshirts, and t-shirts can be found HERE . Other ways to help are to become a member !
If you'd like to read more on the Peter Gray Parr Project 's beginnings and future please read our  Parr Project Booklet. 

There is a short Parr Project video on our website  HERE.
 Thank you to the Trout and Salmon Foundation for your continued support of the Peter Gray Parr Project !
Please support our work by becoming a member  of the Downeast Salmon Federation. Together, we can restore sea-run fisheries in Maine.