Miramichi Salmon Association

**Our History** On October 8th, 1953, a small group of conservation-minded pioneers, all who shared a common love for the Miramichi and who feared for its future, registered a fledgling new organization called the Miramichi Salmon Association, Inc. (MSA). The group, made up of anglers, guides, camp owners, commercial outfitters and sporting good merchants, drafted a simple statement that declared as its mission; “the propagation, protection and perpetuation of the Atlantic Salmon in the Miramichi River system”. That fundamental goal still directs the programs and activities of the MSA today. Through the persuasive voice of Jack Fenety, MSA President for 35 years, an intense lobbying effort was conducted to reduce bag limits on Atlantic salmon anglers, ban the angling for salmon from bridges, establish the mandatory use of flies only for angling salmon, create closed fishing zones in the headwaters to protect spawning salmon and ban the commercial net fishing for salmon. Under the leadership of Mr. Fenety, the MSA sponsored the reconstruction of the federal salmon hatchery in the early 1980’s and later under the leadership of President Bud Bird, the MSA took over the operation of the facility in 1997. By the turn of the century, the MSA hired a full-time president, Mark Hambrook, to run the hatchery facility and to start an aggressive campaign to halt the decline of salmon stocks, first by inventorying the number of young salmon (smolts) migrating from the Miramichi River to the ocean, counting the juvenile salmon in the river and targeting the low density areas with salmon stocks from the hatchery. Now under the direction of our interim president, Butch Dalton, the MSA continues to grow as a leading ‘on-the-river’ conservation organization, whose vision resonates with all of its supporters; that our great natural capital – the river and the salmon – can be cared for and enhanced so that their natural health and abundance can be increased and perpetuated in value into the future. **Our Mission Statement** *Exemplary, river-based leadership, stewardship and conservation practices for the Miramichi Watershed* *to continuously preserve and balance its environmental integrity for the benefit of all native species, in* *particular the Atlantic Salmon.*