‘Our river is almost dead’: What’s killing an iconic Miramichi fishery?
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What → kill → fishery
New documentary explores the tensions between Atlantic salmon, striped bass, and people on each side
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documentary → explore → side
Every veteran salmon angler, guide and outfitter in the Miramichi watershed remembers their first encounter with a striped bass.
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angler → remember → bass
For Rip Cunningham, a member of the storied Black Brook Salmon Club, it happened at the junction of the Main Southwest Miramichi River and the Cains River.
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it → happen → River
“I caught what I thought was a salmon, and I was going, ‘This fish isn’t jumping.
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fish → catch → ?
This is odd,’” he said.
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he → say → ?
He reeled it in.
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He → reel → it
“The guides who live on the river, who’d been fishing on the river for years, said ‘What’s that?’
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that → live → years
They had no idea whatsoever.
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They → have → idea
It was a striped bass, a fish Cunningham believes now represents an existential threat to the Miramichi’s most iconic species: his beloved wild Atlantic salmon.
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Cunningham → believe → species
Byron Coughlan, who runs the County Haven fishing lodge near Blackville, was guiding two salmon anglers from New England about 15 years ago when they caught two bass.
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they → run → bass
“They said, ‘Your river's done,’” he recalled.
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he → say → ?
“‘The bass is going to eat everything.’
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bass → go → everything
They said, ‘Eventually you won’t have any salmon.’”
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you → say → salmon
The community of anglers, guides and outfitters in the Miramichi watershed fear that prediction is now on the verge of coming true.
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prediction → fear → verge
Juvenile salmon, they say, are being gobbled up on their migratory trek to the ocean by a growing striped bass population.
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they → say → population
“We have a crisis facing Atlantic salmon and other species on the Miramichi,” Alex Mills, an angler who is part of lawsuit against the federal government, told the House of Commons standing committee on fisheries and oceans this month.
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who → have → fisheries
In 1996, the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans closed the commercial striped bass fishery to halt a collapse in stocks caused by overfishing.
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Department → close → overfishing
The salmon anglers say the closure allowed the bass population to grow to an unsustainable level, moving upriver from its traditional home in tidal waters and throwing off the Miramichi’s delicate balance.
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population → say → balance
Bradford Burns, foreground, fly fishes for Atlantic salmon on the Southwest Miramichi River.
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Burns → fish → River
Burns, an American, has been coming here from the U.S. to fish for decades.
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Burns → come → decades
DFO blamed for ‘a big mess’
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DFO → blame → mess
The anglers say the growth of the striped bass is killing the fabled recreational salmon fishery, once an economic lifeline for small communities along the river.
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growth → say → river
DFO officials “have done essentially nothing” to curb the bass boom “and created this big mess,” said Bradford Burns, a Maine business owner with a salmon camp on the Southwest Miramichi.
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Burns → do → Miramichi
The bass population is now north of 500,000 — some estimates are much higher — while salmon returns were below 5,000 in 2025, DFO numbers indicate.
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numbers → indicate → 2025
Burns, Cunningham, Mills and two other anglers have filed a lawsuit in federal court hoping to force DFO to resume a commercial bass fishery to reduce the population and give more smolts a chance to reach the ocean.
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Burns → file → ocean
“This extraordinary level of predation is completely unsustainable and is on the verge of extirpating Atlantic salmon from what has long been considered the greatest salmon river in North America,” the group wrote in a letter to the federal fisheries minister in 2024.
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group → extirpate → 2024
Salmon are so tied to the identity of the Miramichi region, highway signs depict the fish.
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signs → tie → fish
On its website, DFO says bass eat “variable numbers” of smolts every year, and “it is not clear whether this natural predator-prey dynamic is limiting the number of returning adult salmon to the Miramichi river.
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dynamic → say → river
‘A direct correlation,’ outfitter says
Brock Curtis, who operates an outfitter store in Blackville that is an essential destination for anglers and guides, says the cause and effect are clear.
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cause → say → anglers
“Our numbers are dropping as the bass numbers are increasing, and there's a direct correlation there,” he said.
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he → drop → ?
The Atlantic salmon is so tied to the river’s identity that its image is used on provincial road signs identifying the Miramichi river route.
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image → tie → route
Curtis says what’s at risk is a unique fishery that puts a premium on patience, practice and a calm state of mind.
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that → say → mind
“We live in a world where a lot of people are used to immediate gratification,” he said.
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he → live → gratification
It's a skill, and you put your time in and you will be rewarded in the end.”
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you → put → end
Brock Curtis runs a salmon-angling outfitting store in Blackville.
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Curtis → run → Blackville
Striper success
By contrast, the abundant striped bass has spawned a two-day frenzy of immediate gratification that unfolds downriver every May.
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that → spawn → gratification
Hundreds of anglers crowd into the city of Miramichi for the Striper Cup, a bass tournament with a seemingly bottomless list of prizes and giveaways.
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Hundreds → crowd → prizes
"We’ve always had fish,” participant Barry Hay said in an interview over the side of his boat during this year’s tournament.
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Hay → have → tournament
"We’ve never won, but we’ve always had fish, two a day."
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we → win → fish
…and 80 more, not listed.
The Aporia
