Fishery failure declared for West Coast salmon fishery
A couple of weeks back, the United States Secretary of Commerce, Carlos M. Gutierrez, declared the West Coast salmon fishery a commercial failure for 2008 and shut down any notion that the Chinook fishery would reopen. According to studies, the Chinook salmon run comprised an estimated 800,000 individuals in 2002, a number that dwindled to under 100,000 in 2007. Estimates for 2008 fall for the return of somewhere around 60,000 adult salmon.
From Science Daily:
Although the reasons for the sudden decline of the fishery are not completely understood, NOAA scientists suggest that changes in ocean conditions, including unfavorable shifts in ocean temperature and food sources for juvenile salmon, likely caused poor survival of salmon that would have comprised this year’s fishery. Loss of freshwater habitat for salmon spawning, rearing, and migration to the ocean is a chronic problem that has made salmon populations more susceptible to the occasional poor ocean conditions. NOAA will undertake a thorough examination of the causes.
Related news items
- Salmon season cancelled, CNN
- Sharp Curb on Salmon Season, New York Times
- Salmon ‘emergency’ spawns new limits, Seattle Post Intelligencer
- Salmon fishing off California, Oregon banned, SF Gate (San Francisco Chronicle)
