Watching discussions of salmon management along the continental West Coast is at times akin to replaying a slow motion car wreck over and over again – it’s ugly, you know how it’s going to end, but you can’t help but peek in one more time. Two stories have popped up recently that fit this mold to the T.
Low Coho Numbers May Lead to N. OR and WA Shutdown
From Low Coho Numbers Could Shut Down Coastal Salmon Fisheries in The Oregonian –
OLYMPIA, Wash. — Regional fishery managers are considering the rare step of closing recreational and commercial salmon fishing off the coast of Washington and northern Oregon this summer due to a low number of returning coho salmon.
Butch Smith, owner of Coho Charters in Ilwaco, Washington, said a no-fishing option would be devastating to coastal communities, Oregon Public Broadcasting reported.
“Fishing is our lifeblood,” he said. “Fishing is our Boeing and our Microsoft.”
The Pacific Fishery Management Council is eyeing the shutdown as one of three alternatives as it sets fishing seasons off the Pacific coast. Two other options released Monday would permit some salmon fishing.
The last time salmon fishing was closed in the waters was 1994. It was severely curtailed in 2008.
The current proposal would close recreational and commercial non-tribal ocean fishing for chinook and coho salmon north of Cape Falcon, near Manzanita, Oregon.
Read more at the link above.
The Oregonian Editorial Board Weighs in on Salmon Hatcheries
From Salmon Hatchery Findings Should Inform a Top-to-Bottom Review: Editorial (emphasis mine) –
Fitting out the Columbia Basin with hydroelectric dams transformed the Pacific Northwest. Abundant, clean and cheap electricity would drive business growth and settlement, while an elaborate system of river locks allowed barges to connect the ocean with ports far inland. What was once a wild and rocky waterway teeming with salmon became a series of slackwater lakes yoked in service to development and the economies of Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Montana.
But even the best things can bring corollary damage. The Northwest’s iconic salmon would plunge into decline. Taming the once-wild Columbia River hammered celebrated salmon runs of more than 16 million wild fish to just a few million annually. In abundance, instead, have been salmon hatcheries — hundreds lining the river and its tributaries and pouring millions upon millions of baby factory fish into the river to offset the decline in wild stocks. It is not unreasonable to say hatcheries have allowed Northwest citizens to honor longstanding commitments to upriver tribes, which have treaty rights to a guaranteed level of harvestable fish, and to support recreational and once-thriving commercial fisheries. Nothing’s perfect. Besides, the federal government correctly insisted, under the Endangered Species Act, that the Northwest’s wild salmon be saved from extinction.
The dollar cost, however, has been staggering. More than $15 billion has been spent since 1978 in attempting to recover Columbia Basin salmon in what has to be the largest wildlife stewardship ever in North America. A study of Columbia Basin salmon-recovery efforts performed by economists more than a decade ago pegged the public’s investment in hatchery fall chinook at a low of $64.35 per surviving fish, while the price soared to $7,437.50 for every adult sockeye that managed to navigate dams and outswim predators to return to a hatchery in Boise…
Worth finishing at the link above, and the comments have some spirited, enlightening insights (i.e., the Alaska experience) for those so inclined.
Fisheries Science or Einstein’s Definition of Insanity?
For an area of the country ostensibly boasting several of the countries greenest cities and broad swaths of citizenry embracing an enlightened conservation ethos, and with hard-working, uber-intelligent salmon advocates documenting the jaw-dropping historical decline in the OR/WA salmon runs, the inability of salmon managers to effectively move the salmon stock needle (relative to historical norms) particularly given expenditures put forth is simply stunning.
A meaningful consensus as to where to go from here seems as far away as it ever has been; everyone with skin in the salmon game is probably going to hurt a bit this season and down the short term road (including the tribes).
Using a medical analogy, the patient has been diagnosed and the condition (dismal salmon stocks) well documented, though the doctors in charge can’t come to any rational conclusion as to the best course of care and at best are treating only symptoms, not the core disease. It can keep a patient alive, for a while…
Anybody have the magic solution to the salmon issue?
