35 years after, by Bob Hooton. A salmon crisis is here!

I think we have far larger issues than anything driven by fishing...

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https://fisheries.org/2018/04/new-r... more Pacific salmon,4% of total salmon catch.

  • There are more Pacific salmon now than ever before since comprehensive statistics began to be collected in 1925 (i.e., catch plus spawning escapement). However, Chinook and Coho salmon and steelhead trout are depressed throughout much of their range, representing only 4% of total salmon catch.
  • Major hatchery production for these three species occurs in Alaska (Prince William Sound, Southeast Alaska), the Sakhalin and Kuril Islands (Russia), and Japan. In Alaska, up to 48% of total commercial salmon harvest is from hatchery salmon according to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.
  • The authors recommend the following changes in salmon management: 1) mark or tag all hatchery salmon so they can be identified after release, 2) estimate hatchery- and natural-origin salmon in catches and escapement, and 3) maintain this information in publicly accessible databases.
 
I believe that quote from the Ruggerone/Irvine article includes all hatchery salmon, as well - incl the AK chum hatcheries. So it isn't a reference specific only to wild salmon, or only wild Southern stocks...

Here's another quote: "Hatchery salmon now constitute ~40% of the total biomass of adult and immature salmon in the ocean, largely because of Chum Salmon that spend more years at sea."
 
Canada is a big looser in this, I believe there will come a time in the future where they will negotiate hatchery production as part of a treaty and because Canada's hatchery production is almost nil comparatively will come out as big losers in the negotiations.

should go with the nuclear option and push out as much hatchery fish and force the hand
 
Canada is a big looser in this, I believe there will come a time in the future where they will negotiate hatchery production as part of a treaty and because Canada's hatchery production is almost nil comparatively will come out as big losers in the negotiations.

should go with the nuclear option and push out as much hatchery fish and force the hand
Unless the international politics change I think the nuclear option is our only scientific option to have any fish available to catch.

Wild salmon and steelhead are remarkably prolific when they are given a chance. Chinook are invasive and grow to huge sizes in Chile. Chile has 25 or more times the density of fish farms as BC does and still the chinook are exploding in size and numbers. Alaska has no "fish farms" and its chinook are also failing like BC's. What Chile doesn't have is pink salmon ranching..

Don't forget the SRKW deaths / low birth rates have an extremely statistically significant 2 year pattern for which the only explanation available so far is the huge increase in pink salmon: ocean ranching is a major cause of that.

https://vancouversun.com/news/local...-three-times-more-likely-to-die-in-even-years
 
Interesting hypothesis, mbowers - thanks for sharing. It's likely gonna be way more complicated than adults pinks obscuring the larger Chinook targets. Do adult pinks and returning adult Chinook cohabituate the same exact feeding spots in 4D (2D + depths + time)? What about the juvies? Wouldn't small pinks outmigrating after hatching in the odd year springs after being laid as eggs in the fw during the even-year summer/fall returns end-up being prey for many species including subadult Chinook? Do both river-type and ocean-type Chinook life histories follow that same 2 year pattern? Lots of connections beyond this, as well wrt when/where plankton/zooplankton grows and is eaten.

Lots to think about and get a handle on...
 
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Unless the international politics change I think the nuclear option is our only scientific option to have any fish available to catch.

Wild salmon and steelhead are remarkably prolific when they are given a chance. Chinook are invasive and grow to huge sizes in Chile. Chile has 25 or more times the density of fish farms as BC does and still the chinook are exploding in size and numbers. Alaska has no "fish farms" and its chinook are also failing like BC's. What Chile doesn't have is pink salmon ranching..

Don't forget the SRKW deaths / low birth rates have an extremely statistically significant 2 year pattern for which the only explanation available so far is the huge increase in pink salmon: ocean ranching is a major cause of that.

https://vancouversun.com/news/local...-three-times-more-likely-to-die-in-even-years


Link to article re: Chile and Chinook.


Wonder how I can get my rowboat down there. LOL




Take care.
 
“It's not just Alaska. It's everywhere where chinook are,” she said. “The reports we're getting from pretty much everyone is that with a few minor exceptions, chinook have been down everywhere, so that kind of points towards a cause that can affect things on a really large geographic scale. So not local causes.”

 
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