wildmanyeah
Crew Member
What sport fishermen need to know about the king salmon crisis
http://juneauempire.com/local/news/...-fishermen-need-know-about-king-salmon-crisis
Something’s happening in the ocean
Management biologists don’t know much, yet, about why king salmon numbers are in decline across Southeast. They are confident in one thing: it’s a salty problem.
Their analysis tells them king salmon are suffering increased mortality in the ocean environment, not in the freshwater river systems, where they spend their early life and where they come to spawn and die.
“There are two main ingredients,” to a salmon run, biologist Phil Richards explained. “You’ve got your freshwater production and your marine survival.”
ADFG measures both ingredients on several rivers in Southeast. Freshwater production is measured by estimating the number of smolt, or juvenile fish, leaving the river every year. Marine survival is measured in the spawning abundance, the number of adult fish returning to the river to reproduce and die.
One ingredient is still doing fine.
“Smolt abundance is relatively stable for the Taku River,” Richards said.
What’s dropped is the number of returning salmon. For the period previous to 2007, about 4 percent of outgoing juvenile salmon returned to the Taku River as adults. That’s dropped to an average of a little less than 2 percent since then.
This tells managers that more Taku Chinook salmon are dying in the ocean than had been previously. For Taku kings, this mortaility is probably occuring in the Gulf of Alaska and Bering Sea, where they spend most of their adult lives.
While ADFG knows where salmon are suffering, they don’t know when or why. They are somewhat confident that it’s a problem with early marine mortality, that young king salmon aren’t making it past their first years in the ocean, a problem which could be related to the availability of food.
http://juneauempire.com/local/news/...-fishermen-need-know-about-king-salmon-crisis
Something’s happening in the ocean
Management biologists don’t know much, yet, about why king salmon numbers are in decline across Southeast. They are confident in one thing: it’s a salty problem.
Their analysis tells them king salmon are suffering increased mortality in the ocean environment, not in the freshwater river systems, where they spend their early life and where they come to spawn and die.
“There are two main ingredients,” to a salmon run, biologist Phil Richards explained. “You’ve got your freshwater production and your marine survival.”
ADFG measures both ingredients on several rivers in Southeast. Freshwater production is measured by estimating the number of smolt, or juvenile fish, leaving the river every year. Marine survival is measured in the spawning abundance, the number of adult fish returning to the river to reproduce and die.
One ingredient is still doing fine.
“Smolt abundance is relatively stable for the Taku River,” Richards said.
What’s dropped is the number of returning salmon. For the period previous to 2007, about 4 percent of outgoing juvenile salmon returned to the Taku River as adults. That’s dropped to an average of a little less than 2 percent since then.
This tells managers that more Taku Chinook salmon are dying in the ocean than had been previously. For Taku kings, this mortaility is probably occuring in the Gulf of Alaska and Bering Sea, where they spend most of their adult lives.
While ADFG knows where salmon are suffering, they don’t know when or why. They are somewhat confident that it’s a problem with early marine mortality, that young king salmon aren’t making it past their first years in the ocean, a problem which could be related to the availability of food.
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