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Aug 27, 2016

Lethal effects of Atlantic Salmon smolt exposure to aluminum-rich acidic waters - peer reviewed studies suggest similar conditions prevail at Penobscot River mouth.

Below, read a variety of scientific reports on the mortality of Atlantic salmon smolts exposed to acidified freshwater, brackish water and/or saltwater contaminated with dissolved aluminum. About Salmon smoltification 

 There is a general consensus among the scientific community that exposure of Maine salmon smolts to pulses of low pH water carrying dissolved aluminum triggers premature smoltification
The culprit appears to be accumulation of gill surface aluminum, "leading to substantial alterations in gill morphology, reduced gill Na+/K+-ATPase (NKA) activity, and impaired ion regulation in both freshwater and seawater."

Are Penobscot  River's  Atlantic Salmon smolt  affected by declines in Penobscot River in part due to such acid/aluminum-rich water pollution in Stockton Harbor since the 1950s  in waters just outside the mouth of Penobscot River.  There on Stockton Harbor's Kidder's Point,  acid, sulfur and aluminum wastes have eroded, leached and plumed into the southwest end of  the harbor whose connection with  abandoned sulfuric acid, fertilizer and alum production complex on the harbor's Kidder Point. Tests since the 1980s document these conditions.

Consensus on adverse impacts.
The impact of this mixture of acid sulfur and aluminum on Atlantic salmon smolts has been well documented since at least the late 1980s by researchers in the USA, Canada, Norway and elsewhere.
Topical Searches
* Google Scholar Aluminum + estuarine
* Google scholar: aluminum + estuary +Maine
* Pub Med search on estuarine and aluminum

ALUMINUM - ACID - ATLANTIC SALMON  Listed by date.




Effect of aluminum on fish in acidic waters. A term paper submitted to
The Department of Ecology and Natural Resource Management (INA)
Agricultural University of Norway, 2004 



Effects of Acidity and Aluminum on the Physiology and Migratory Behavior of Atlantic Salmon Smolts in Maine, USA  J. A. Magee, T. A. Haines, J. F. Kocik, K. F. Beland, S. D. McCormick, Water, Air, and Soil Pollution: Vol 130, Issue 1, pp 881–886 August 2001, 


Other species 
Watershed scale & chemistry studies of aluminum & acids' bio-impacts




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