Atlantic Salmon: Lost at Sea

It’s really a wonder that any individual salmon makes it from birth sac to spawning ground in one piece. Filmmaker Deirdre Brennan’s documentary tells viewers about the traditional obstacles found on the long, mysterious path of salmon in the best of times, and notes how much more complicated their lives have become in the last two decades. Figuring out what has fundamentally changed about oceans that is causing severely reduced wild salmon populations where they used to be plentiful is a Herculean task involving many research projects from the U.S., Ireland, and Scotland (three countries with cultures built up around salmon). Narrated by Gabriel Byrne, Atlantic Salmon: Lost at Sea methodically observes different kinds of research that track the movements of salmon as they grow into smolts (young fish), disappear for a few years, and then come back as adults, swimming upstream to spawn. Along the way, the film looks at numerous contributors to salmon decline, including surges in the populations of natural predators, widespread dams, and an abundance of salmon farms where "domestic" salmon are covered in lice and many escape from captivity to mate with wild salmon, creating problematic hybrids. Solutions to these problems exist, but they require a will to implement that might not exist in the current political climate. Recommended. Aud: H, C, P. (T. Keogh)