Salmon parr at Peter Gray Hatchery have virus 2nd year in a row

The Downeast Salmon Federation’s Peter Gray Hatchery’s salmon parr project has tested positive for infectious pancreatic necrosis virus for the second year in a row.

Last year, 170,000 salmon were killed because of the virus. The federation said it cannot release this year’s salmon either, according to a press release it issued Friday.

The infected salmon will be killed, Dwayne Shaw, executive director of Downeast Salmon Federation, said Friday.

The hatchery has released more than 1.7 million salmon parr into the East Machias River since 2012, and expanded its program to the Narraguagus River in 2021.

The federation announced last year that it was raising money to install a filter system and ultraviolet sterilization process in its East Machias Peter Gray Hatchery to minimize chances of the virus infecting the parr.

The virus occurs naturally in Maine waters and would come from other fish or birds, Shaw said last year.

The federation said it would look into increasing the use of UV filtration and plans to expand operations at the Pleasant River Hatchery in response to the second infection.

The organization is raising funds for improvements to the UV filtration system ($85,000-$100,000), to extend operations through 2025 ($170,000) and to expand the Pleasant River Hatchery parr Project Expansion  ($1.2 million), according to the press release.