Contact: Sari Kiraly FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(301) 713-3338 8/25/95
Restoration efforts for Atlantic salmon depleted by overfishing, habitat loss and pollution in "down east" river watersheds, including the St. Croix River in Maine, are benefitting from remote-sensing technology provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Commerce Department announced today.
The Coastal Change Analysis Program (C-CAP), administered by NOAAþs Coastal Ocean Program, is providing data and map products to identify the location and extent of coastal habitats in the Northeast U.S. The information is being applied to determine important salmon spawning and rearing habitat. With this information, fishery and coastal managers will be able to more effectively manage salmon resources by balancing land use and forestry practices within the region with conservation and restoration of salmon habitat.
The C-CAP project was conducted as a joint effort involving NOAA, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Coastal and Estuary Project, and Environment Canada to map landcover and habitat change in the St. Croix River estuary in Maine and Canada. The data and map products are curently assisting the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Fishery Stewardship Project in restoration efforts for the Atlantic salmon. Ultimately, these C-CAP landcover and habitat data will be incorporated into models to predict how land use changes could affect water quality important to salmon.
Data and map products from C-CAP are also assisting Project SHARE (Salmon Habitat and River Enhancement), an organization of state and local government agencies, forest and agricultural land-owners, research and conservation groups, and representatives of academia interested in salmon conservation. SHARE has used this data to develop Geographic Information System maps of salmon habitat, and in its public education efforts.
"The participation of the C-CAP St. Croix River Estuary project in salmon restoration efforts demonstrates the usefulness of data from national programs to solve regional, state, and even local environmental problems," said Donald Scavia, director of the Coastal Ocean Program. "By working together in this way, NOAA and other federal agencies can leverage research funds to help develop cost-effective solutions to coastal resource management problems."
C-CAP uses satellite imagery (primarily Landsat Thematic Mapper) to examine changes in coastal wetlands and adjacent uplands, and aerial photography to examine changes in seagrasses. Most C-CAP projects, including the St. Croix project, are conducted cooperatively with a federal, regional, state or local resource agency to develop information specific to their needs. The satellite imagery, aerial photography, and field data are then interpreted, classified, and analyzed using a national protocol developed by C-CAP, and integrated with other digital data in a geographic information system to develop a nationally- standardized database on coastal land cover and habitat change.