Case Study Of Sockeye Salmon

Salmon has been a highly demanded product by millions of customers as well as the countries who rely on seafood as a primary dish. However, with the influx of people’s wants come the consequences of these species are decreasing in populations around the world due to the causes and practices of human fishing. As stated by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), there were an estimated 50% decline worldwide of salmon over the last twenty years. Several sources play a factor in the huge amounts of salmon being depleted including overfishing, loss of habitat, and even dams. Since the late 1900s, other ways of reversing what was happening to populations were being proposed and one new technical approach to re-populate the salmon fish exponentially was known as salmon farming, but the process brought more problems to the salmon species then there were good.

The average period of time that sockeye salmon live in the wild is 4 to 5 years. The oldest salmon that was caught was 8 years of age. Usually sockeye salmon die after mating (“Longevity, aging and life history of Oncorhynchus nerka”, 2009; Groot, 1966)One thing about sockeye salmon that is special and unique about them is that they swim in runs when migrating to freshwater streams to spawn. They additionally establish gregarious hierarchies, conventionally at times of reproduction. The most astronomically immense male is most ascendant (Crutchfield and Pontecorvo, 1969; Quinn, 2005). The predators of sockeye salmon are considered to be bears, lake trout, squawfish, mountain whitefish, and birds such as mew gull. Humans additionally consume a considerable about sockeye salmon.

Factors on the collapse of the West Coast fishery•Overfishing•Changes in the Environment/Global Warming•Different agreements/lack of treatiesOverfishingIn the 90's there was an 800,000 tonnes catch per year for salmon. Instead of being over 100 major fish processing plants in British Colombia, there's fewer than 10.Changes in the Environment/Global WarmingThe Pacific Ocean is increasing in temperature due to Global Warming, which there's a possibility of threatening the salmon's habitat. The preferable temperature for salmon is below 7 degrees, so if the water temperatures keep rising, the salmon will move towards the Bering sea because its cooler. Instead of the spawning occurring in British Colombia, it will be in

From the San Francisco Bay to streams and rivers of Oregon, salmon populations have been steadily decreasing over the past two decades but more rapidly within recent years. In general, fish populations in the Pacific Northwest region have always fluctuated, but the overall trend continues on a downward slope to extinction. While natural phenomena such as flooding and predators of the food chain do affect salmon populations, human activity poses the greatest threat by far. The four main reasons of salmon plummeting are as followed: Harvest, Hatcheries, Hydropower, and Habitat. It’s clear that water ecosystems and management of human activity threaten salmon as a whole. Whether it’s a bay, river or stream- whatever body of water that contains salmon should be subject to ethics that guide our actions as a part of achieving a better overall environment.

Salmon hatcheries have been operated for a variety of purposes throughout their its history in this region, from harvest augmentation, to mitigation of habitat destruction, to conservation and preservation of native populations. Despite this long history, we are only just beginning to understand how hatchery-raised fish interact with and effect wild populations of salmon. Research shows that captive-bread salmon impact wild salmon in a variety of ways, from competing with them directly for resources, to reducing the fitness of wild populations through interbreeding between wild fish and less-fit hatchery fish. These findings have serious implications for the hatchery industry, and as the focus of hatchery operation switches from augmentation

Salmon stocks in British Columbia are on the brink of collapse largely because the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans has consistently allowed too many fish to be killed in commercial and recreational fisheries, according to a new research paper.The high exploitation of stocks – which draws parallels with the destruction of Atlantic cod by overfishing – may be more to blame for the decline of Pacific salmon than global warming or poor ocean conditions, says the study assessing salmon management practices, published today by the Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic

An endangered species is a species of either plant or animal that is in serious risk of becoming extinct. This name became connected with the Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) in 1994 after being petitioned to be put on the list for nine years (NOAA). There are two main reasons behind the endangerment of the Chinook salmon: over exploration, and dams. Since the times of the Native Americans, Chinook salmon have been highly sought after as a food source. Since then the salmon have experienced great amounts of overfishing. Along with water demands which has resulted in overuse of water and diversion of water had affected spawning sites and loss of habitat putting further strain on their habitats (National Wildlife Federation).

In the article “River Plan Too Fishy for my Taste Buds,” it states that “Salmon need clear, cool, highly oxygenated water to thrive - a description that hasn’t fit the San Joaquin since the 1940s,” (Bill McEwen). Since the salmon need specific living conditions, it is going to be hard for them to live in general, especially if the place does not suit their needs. Recently, similar things have been said about the salmon as well. For example, in Grossi’s article, he states “Salmon, a cold - water fish, may not survive in this part of California as the climate warms…,” (Time for Next turnaround on San Joaquin River). Not only does the San Joaquin river not have suitable living conditions for the salmon, but it is also located in an area that they may not survive in. The problem is, the salmon need to many things to survive, and the San Joaquin does not suit any of these

The salmon levels are as predicted, low and unstable. Bill McEwen foresaw this, evidently in, “The salmon will be hatchery-raised,

“ When the chinook salmon come back to the San Joaquin River it will be a miracle.” (Weintraub 2009) In the article ‘River Restoration Project Offers a Sprinkling of Hope’ Daniel Weintraub expresses that he does not believe that the salmon will come back to the San Joaquin River. Now the interesting thing to know is if after six years where Weintraub’s beliefs accurate? “If it isn’t already a warm-water fishery, it will be soon. In the midst of global warming, trying to expand that range of salon- instead of saving them where they are- is a fool’s errand.” (The Editorial Board 2015) The Editorial Board explains that after six years the salmon still haven't returned, and they won't return because of global warming. It is better to save the salmon where they are now instead of trying to have them return to a place where we won’t know if they will

When fish like salmon are farmed, often the fish are still kept in the ocean; however, they live inside of nets so that they are still contained. There are many ethical arguments based around these net systems because these nets pose threats to wild salmon. Captive salmon can escape from the nets, which allows them to breed with wild salmon. This can disrupt the natural gene pool of wild salmon. Farmed salmon have been shown to outgrow wild salmon when introduced into the wild, and typically have higher mortality rates, which would be poor traits to be introduced into the wild gene pool, (Hindar, et al., 2006). Unfortunately, with the invasive farmed salmon being introduced to wild populations from escapees of net systems, the recovery of the original wild salmon is unlikely, even if decades went by without more intrusive farmed salmon being present, (Hindar, et al., 2006). Another problem is that the nets do not contain wastes from the captive salmon inside, wastes such as uneaten feed, and feces from the fish are dispersed into the open waters of the ocean. Wild salmon can contract infections and parasites from captive farmed salmon in nets. A study indicated that these parasites, such as sea lice, and infections lead to high mortality rates in wild salmon passing near

Prior NPRB projects have laid an important foundation outlining the effects climate change on Pink salmon in Alaska. A previous study has detailed the influence that biological, environmental and genetic factors had on the timing of Pink salmon migration (PI: Tallmon, project 1110), allowing us to support these data by testing, in a laboratory setting, the relative influence of specific climate change-related stressors on developmental rate, affecting out migration timing. Understanding environmental factors that influence overall performance of a species is critical to determining the susceptibility of that species to shifting habitat conditions. The proposed research will fill a gap of understanding regarding Pink salmon’s specific sensitivity

The example given is the coral trout, a fish that is commercially important. Since the water temperature has risen higher up in the water, these trout tend to be more lethargic now; they stay lower in the water. This is crucial because all of their hunting and mating ground is higher

Commercial fishing boats are pushing to catch as many Atlantic salmon as they can after a net pen broke near Washington's Cypress Island. Fishermen reported thousands of the non-native fish jumping in the water or washing ashore. The pen, in the state's northwestern San Juan Islands, contained about 305,000 Atlantic salmon. Environmentalists are concerned that the escaped Atlantic salmon could potentially mate and crossbreed with the Pacific salmon or compete with them for food but they are not completely sure what the ramifications will be. Now, owner Cooke Aquaculture and the Washington department of fish and wildlife are trying to determine how many escaped. The director of the wild fish conservancy northwest, Kurt Beardslee , called the

One of the many problems the severe water drought has caused has affected many of the animals such as the American river fish, salmon, and steelheads. In the Sacramento Bee the article “Drought Threatens American River Fish” by Matt Weiser explains how the steelhead are threatened species who are about to hatch in the American River, but due to the drought the sunny temperature and the