Hustins, who visited the site last week, told CBC's St. John's Morning Show Monday the previous fishway has been demolished completely.

"In its place, DFO is building what I understand to be a state of the art, new fishway," said Hustins.

He estimates the job is about 10 per cent completed.

"It, no doubt, will be a great facility when it's done but, unfortunately, the primary run of salmon in the river, which occurs from the first two or three weeks of July, has already started."

Hustins believes there are hundreds of additional salmon under the non-operational fishway that are unable to move upriver. He said 500 to 600 salmon swim upriver at the site annually, though it can accommodate more than 3,000.