Fraser River Sockeye Salmon : An Analytical Literature Review

The questions begs a valid point and presents the challenges in the article and the Global Fishing Industry. It is evident in the case that there it has taken a significant amount of time for the notion of responsible fishing techniques. In the 50’s when the global fishing industry started picking up speed and the “Commons” precedent started taking effect with everyone trying to fish the maximum they can in order to maximize their immediate profit. It took almost three decades for communities to start feeling and exploring the effects of this overfishing and there was a need for

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.

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).

The population of many fish species have decreased drastically through the years and, even with current regulations,

In the article “Changes at Snake River dams helping Idaho sockeye salmon” it states that “an unusual combination of low water and an extended heat wave pushed water temperatures past 70 degrees, lethal for cold-water sockeye.” I have a very strong connection to fishing and I hate it when fish die for no good reason or because of a manmade structure. A report by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said “One of the factors contributing to the deaths of sockeye salmon was “fallback,” a tendency of fish to successfully climb a dam’s fish ladder but then, running into warm water, decide to go back downstream, often via a dam’s spillway or through the turbines.” This reminds me of the time I was fishing near a small dam and caught

With the influx of human population immigrating to Pacific Northwest Region of the United States at the end of the 19th century, extracting the natural goods of the environment quickly became an issue of sustainability and preservation. In the State of Washington Ninth Annual Report of the State Fish Commissioner of 1898, author A.C. Little illustrates how the extractive actions along many of Washington’s river systems are resulting in a major depletion of salmon species unique to the Northwest. Little’s Report aimed to bring attention to over consumption of this finite resource that was not only intrinsically valuable to many people within the region but was also a very successful economic engine too value to deplete. The booming fishing industry,

The biggest attraction of British Columbia to me, is the wide variety of wildlife that is present. First of all, moose are one of the province’s most popular large mammals in British Columbia. The moose is the largest member of the deer family. They may weigh up to 1,300 pounds and stand seven feet tall. An interesting thing about moose is that their body types differ from the regions they live in (“Moose”). Another amazing animal of British Columbia is the Pacific salmon. Salmon is the traditional sportfish of the province. Just a few of the many species of Pacific salmon include the King, Coho, and Sockeye. Adult salmon may travel up to an astonishing 2,000 miles to spawn. Some specific salmon species use the Earth’s magnetic field to find

The economy of Newfoundland and Labrador is heavily dependent on natural resources. That’s no secret. Though, our resources are slowly swimming away. Quite literally. Fish are swimming away and northwards. And that’s our concern! As the worker’s

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

There are many risks associated with eating farm-raised salmon versus wild- caught salmon. One risk that farm raised salmon faces is contaminants that can lead to cancer. Farm raised salmon are placed in artificially made bodies of water such as ponds, lakes, and salt water and within these bodies of water, contaminants such as PCBs can be present. Cancer causing chemicals can be present in both the water, farm-raised salmon swims in, and the food they eat. Another risk with farm-raised salmon is the use of antibiotics in order to keep the fish healthy. This unknown amount of antibiotics used on the fish can lead to a resistance to the antibiotic used to kill the bacteria’s in both human and the salmon. The humans that are consuming the fish that possess these antibiotics are unintentionally

Commercial fisheries can do tremendous damage to the marine ecosystem if they are not managed properly. This became apparent in Newfoundland and Labrador during the 1990s, when decades of overfishing caused the northern cod stocks to collapse and resulted in a moratorium on the centuries-old industry. These were huge ecological and economic losses, which dictated an urgent need to change fisheries policy and practice in a way that would make the industry sustainable and protect marine biodiversity.

This will restore the broken and damaged food chains and environments and protect other species to be further harmed. David Biello stated, “64 large marine ecosystems” provide 83% of the world’s seafood today. The cause of overfishing has placed threats of many fish that many Americans buy in this century. Marine biologist Stephen Palumbi of Stanford University states, “Unless we fundamentally change the way we manage all the oceans species together, as working ecosystems, then this century is the last century of wild seafood.” When fishermen run out of fish to harvest in a certain area they move to new or deeper waters. Daniel Pauly once said, ”And, just as a Ponzi scheme will collapse once the pool of potential investors has been drained, so too will the fishing industry collapses as the oceans are drained of

Since Chinook salmon is an anadromous specie, it is born in the fresh water, migrates to the ocean for 1-5 years and then returns to the Main-channel Rivers to spawn. The female lays around 3,000-14,000 eggs that are successfully fertilized by the males, however the eggs are very brittle and can be easily destroyed. Fortunately, enough hatch and survive in Alaska to ensure healthy stocks. After spawning, they typically die as they don’t feed on anything during their widespread migration and use up all the stored body fat for survival. (“CSSP”, n.d.). As an example of their extensive migration, we can look at “the Yukon River spawners that travel more than 2,000 river miles during a 60-day period to reach Canada”. Their major populations are located in Susitana, Taku, Copper, Kuskokwin, Nushagak river systems. The specie’s returning numbers from their sprawled spawning migrations had started declining in 2006, however they have significantly recovered now. (Wild explorer, n.d.)

Many steps are being taken to help the salmon population. A couple of things humans are doing to help them is restoring streams and removing dams. Dams disrupt the spawn areas for salmon. When dams are destroyed it allows the rivers to run free and for the salmon to travel to the sea without having to worry about surviving through the dams. Humans are also restoring streams by adding trees and rock to them. They trying to restore the streams to their original natural state before the streams where straightened in the 1940s and 1950s. This type of original curving stream is the type of ecosystem that salmon would go to spawn in. Humans could be less disruptive to the salmon population. We could find better ways to power electricity, to water

According to the findings of research, approximately 50 percent of commercial marine species have been overfished in the past five decades (Srinivasan, Cheung, Watson & Sumaila, p.1). The increase in fisheries catches across the globe has also been fueled by