Northwest DUers - re Pacific Northwest Salmon

[malaise]

I caught a bit of the NBC news where there's a major crisis re salmon. What's the real problem?

[lumberjack_jeff]

1. There are huge dead zones off the northwest coast.

That's the immediate problem.

The more chronic problem is that the rivers are no longer suitable as spawning habitat and the puget sound has insufficient nutrients to sustain a meaningful food chain, of which the salmon are near the top.

The fact that the seals and sea lions (which are plentiful, yet protected) prey on them where the salmon are forced to congregate by man-made structures doesn't help.

[malaise]

8. Thanks

This must be a major crisis for the native population as well.

[stellanoir]

2. woh those numbers were thoroughly scary

Wild salmon is phenomenal.

All the right fatty acids. Phenomenal texture and so far superior to the dyed farmed stuff.

I marinade it in orange juice and ginger soy sauce.

Hope I get to do so again and you do too.

We should just lay off the harvest for several years but we've totally mucked up the oceans.

Totally tragic really.

[mondo joe]

4. Tragic is right. And at a personal level, salmon is important to my household income, so

that's going to such too. :(

[stellanoir]

6. I've live in a coastal NE community and know and am friends with many fishermen

who were making well over 100 grand, 10 years ago.

Now with the restrictions imposed on their fishing seasons, they are barely making 30.

There is no easy solution to this mess for sure.

I wish you and your family well despite all the odds.

Let's try to pull some salmon out of a hat. . .okay. . .?

[malaise]

9. Yep this must be a major tragedy for the fishermen

and others connected to the industry

[malaise]

10. Do you have data on how this is affecting you and

others connected to the salmon connected businesses.

[mondo joe]

14. I don't. My partner's income is impacted by salmon consumption but it's too early

to know what that will mean. We won't be hurt nearly as bad as those closer to the source, but it won't be fun.

[malaise]

15. OK

I hope it's not too bad.

[alarimer]

3. The populations are very low.

The returns to the rivers in CA have been much lower than in the past so they have closed commercial and recreational harvesting. There are a lot of reasons for this. Possibly habitat loss in spawning areas has reduced the number of fish spawned or food in the ocean is in very short supply. There might be other reasons too and in is likely a combination of things.

[malaise]

11. Thanks n/t

[Beregond2]

5. Salmon

The main reason, quite simply, is hydroelectric dams. And as they are the main source of power here, they aren't going to come down anytime soon. The fiction that fish ladders would solve the problem has no credibility any longer. I don't see a solution.

[malaise]

12. Some human beings destroy everything they encounter

We are way too arrogant to mess up a planet and other life with such ease.

[Bigmack]

18. Not to disagree...

(and I think most of the dams need to come down), but the dams have been there for years and years. I think it's a combination of dams, loss of natural spawning habitat, water diversion, heavy use of lawn chemicals, long-line open sea fishing, hi-tech net fisheries inshore, and warming water. (In the PNW, warmer water means the mackerel come farther north and prey extensively on the juvenile salmon.)

Complicated problem... gonna take complicated - and expensive fixing.

[OregonBlue]

7. Loss of habitat. Remeber when Cheney and Gordon Smith intervened to give the farmers

more water in Southern Oregon? What followed was mass die off of salmon. Problem is, those weren't even long time Klamath Basin residents. They were recent agri-businesses.

Waterways have been destroyed by logging which silts rivers and streams. Dams on all major and even minor rivers. All in all, the Northwest has just destroyed the habitat of the wild salmon.

[malaise]

13. Thanks a lot

I remember the Cheney and Smith intervention. Will have to dig up the material.

We're looking at water issues across the globe next week and I'm thinking of including this since it appears to be yet another policy clusterfuck.

[OregonBlue]

16. Yah, clusterfuck big time. Lots of good articles on it, if you don't find them let me know.

Also look at Blue Oregon site and see if any of their old articles are still there.

[BlooInBloo]

17. There aren't many left.