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Parr Stocking While Atlantic salmon parr are stocked in a number of locations in New England, they are mostly incidental by-products that are graded out of one year smolt programs. The Pawcatuck River program in Rhode Island is an exception in that parr are stocked almost exclusively. The Pawcatuck program is unique in a number of other ways also. The watershed is near the southern extent of the range of Atlantic salmon; therefore, it is not a typical cold water river, as found farther north. Furthermore, predator species, abundant in this drainage, exact a heavy loss on salmon fry. The Pawcatuck program is also the smallest of the four Atlantic salmon programs, hence the smallest budget. For these reasons, the program has decided that ~arr stockings are the most cost effective method of developing their salmon program. Further problems have developed from the parental source of these parr. The program currently uses only domesticated captive broodstock (fish that have never gone to sea) as their egg source. There is evidence that this strain is inferior to sea run parents (Gibson 1989); thus producing poor return rates in the progeny. Return rates for the program range from 0.0 percent to 0.009 percent with a mean of 0.003 percent. Releases in 1989 numbered over 400,000 parr, which is the largest number of fish stocked into this system since the program began in 1979. Smolt Stocking The smolt program is the most successful of the various programs. The Penobscot River in Maine received over 416,000 smolts in 1989 (47 percent of the smolts released). Overall adult returns to the Penobscot -have ranged from 0.23 percent to 1.32 percent with a mean of 0.71 percent. In 1989, 2719 fish returned to traps in the Penobscot, 813 were 1-sea-winter fish, 1,864 were 2-sea-winter fish, 4 were 3-sea-winter fish, and 38 were previous spawners. The Maine stocking program utilizes returning salmon and domesticated captive broodstock for egg takes. Additionally, returning adults not needed for egg takes are released to spawn naturally. In 1988, this amounted to 2,141 out of 2,688 fish trapped in the Penobscot River. The long-term objectives for the Penobscot River are: 1. Achieve an annual production of 185,000 wild smolts. 2. Ensure a minimum of 6,000 adults will be available for spawning annually. 3. Provide a minimum of 2,000 adult salmon for sport harvest annually. The Connecticut River program also utilizes smolts in its restoration effort with 10 to 32 percent of total releases being smolts. This program released 221,000 and 395,300 smolts in 1989 and 1988, respectively. The smolt stocking goal for the Connecticut program is 2Mark Gibson, Rhode Island Division of Fish and Wildlife, W. Kingston, Rhode Island, pers. comm., March, 1990. 34