It's an all-you-can-eat buffet': striped bass in a Canadian river are gobbling up all the salmon. Is a mass cull the answer?

"Since the 19th century, Atlantic salmon in the Miramichi have lured politicians, celebrities and wealthy anglers from across North America and Europe to fishing camps along the river's banks, its undammed branches once producing more of the fish than almost any other river on the continent. In 2010, the fishery was valued at C$16m (8.6m) and provided hundreds of jobs. Rip Cunningham has been travelling from the US state of Massachusetts to the Canadian province of New Brunswick to fish since the 1970s."

"When he first started, he would sit on the deck at the Black Brook Salmon Club, on one of the Miramachi's tributaries, watching the water boil with the leaps and rolls of salmon. It was an amazing experience, just because you saw the amount of life that there was in the river, he says. Rip Cunningham has witnessed the decline of salmon numbers in the Miramichi River since the 1970s."

"Miramichi salmon have declined by as much as 86% since 2012 and with those declines the lodge's bookings are down by half. For some, that decline can be traced to one culprit: striped bass. As Miramichi salmon have declined, numbers of striped bass have been on an inverse trajectory. Researchers estimate there may now be half a million striped bass predators that gobble young salmon as they migrate from their birthplace in the Miramichi to the Atlantic Ocean."

Atlantic salmon populations in the Miramichi River have declined dramatically, falling as much as 86% since 2012 and reducing lodge bookings and regional fishery value. Striped bass numbers have increased sharply, with researchers estimating about half a million bass that consume juvenile salmon during seaward migration. Historical context shows both species are native: striped bass were nearly extirpated by commercial fishing in the 1990s but recovered after fishery closures. The rebound of bass now creates a management conflict between anglers and conservation groups seeking salmon recovery and interests that protect the recovered bass, posing complex ecological and economic trade-offs.

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