The President's Salmon

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's Salmon presents a rich cultural and biological history of the Atlantic salmon and the salmon fishery, primarily revolving around the Penobscot River, the last bastion for the salmon in America and a key battleground site for the preservation of the species.