Tough odds to scale for salmon

Fewer of North America’s Atlantic salmon are making it back to rivers to spawn, which bodes poorly for the future of the imperiled fish, an international conservation group says.

Atlantic salmon were once abundant in the rivers of New England and Atlantic Canada, but are now endangered or have disappeared in parts of both areas.

The salmon are born in rivers, swim to the Atlantic and return to their natal river to spawn.

The New Brunswick, Canada-based Atlantic Salmon Federation released a report this month that says total estimated returns of the fish to North America in 2016 was a little more than a half million salmon, a 27 percent decrease from the previous year.

Atlantic salmon face a number of challenges in the wild, including changing climate, the presence of river dams and more fishing off Canada and Greenland.