Importantly, let's not overlook the effects of salmon population declines on the indigenous peoples of California. Tribes such as the Karuk, Yurok, Wiyot and the Hoopa, to name just a few, have depended on salmon as their main food source for centuries. Salmon was not just food, but central to their religion, their diet, and their overall way of life. Salmon are the cornerstone of their culture (Harling, 2006). The loss of this abundant natural resource must be seen not only as degrading the health of the river ecosystem, but also as severely impacting the health of the tribes.
The environment, and recreational activities that are essential to the outdoors, have also been negatively impacted by this system for allocating water rights. The issue of whether or not this system is equitable towards environmental protection has been raised because environmental organizations typically do not have the same funds as other entities, such as cities and towns, oil, gas, and energy companies, and manufacturing. Furthermore, as Jones and Cech point out, “environmental concerns continue to be underrepresented in Colorado water law and policy” (p. 712). This has created a situation similar to agriculture, where environmental concerns become second thoughts to those of M&I, giving rise to environmental issues across the state. These environmental issues can have an effect on residents throughout Colorado, from anglers who enjoy healthy streams and rivers for fishing, to kayakers and rafters who need flowing rivers to recreate
Alaskan men have a long history of struggling to survive in the wilderness. Today, some, like the Gwich 'in, a native Alaskan tribe, still choose to live off nature. Recently, though a new argument has come to Alaska, one that could destroy the traditions of the Gwich’in forever. Politicians, environmentalists, economists and neighbors now fight over the prospect of oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Many of the arguments for drilling are worth consideration; however, in comparison to the evidence against it, they are neither convincing nor compelling.
Afterall, the Three Rivers Challenge is “a plan to share stewardship of the Yaak region among logging interests, recreation enthusiasts and environmental advocates - is the proposal best known to me in this legislation” (13). Bass believes that “this bill increases wildness, protects endangered species, and detoxifies - once and for all - the word ‘wildness’ ” (13). Since the bill portrayed an open minded view, it led to the opportunity of the bill being regarded as fair and agreeable by everyone. Lastly, he wants to let us know that “the process has been as inclusionary as it has been informal, with the participants not directed by any agency requirement, but instead by the grassroots flow of democracy” (10) because fairness is an important factor of
Today, it is easy to look back and see that Native Americans, including the Micmac, lived unsustainable lifestyles. The Micmac’s economy revolved around trading small animals (e.g. beavers). Their desire for European goods provided an incentive to deplete the animal population (Merchant 13). A problem with this lifestyle is that it is difficult to know that the animal’s population is being depleted until it is too late.
The goals for the West Saginaw Bay Watershed are based on the past studies conducted in the watershed. The goals are aimed at protecting the water quality and wildlife habitat and address the resource concerns of the watershed. Milestones were identified indicating the steps needed to reach the objective. Implementing most objectives requires a combination of three types of activities:
The author believes that restoring the river will not cause any changes for the salmon. The author mentions the problem with salmon, “ Besides, scientific evidence suggests that California’s salmon problem have been caused in large part of oceanic condition and the environment mess that is the San Joaquin- Sacramento Delta” (McEwen 1). McEwen knows that the project will not benefit the salmons in any way. The San Joaquin River doesn’t fit the environment salmons require causing the population to decline. The river doesn’t meet the requirements which would let the problem to increase dramatically. The author also uses logos when he mentions the farmer agreements, “.. Many of the farmers in the Friant Water Users Authority decided that settling out of court and giving up some water for salmon was smarter than taking their chances with federal judge” (McEwen 2). This quotation states that farmers display willingness to share some of their water for the salmons and their safety. If restoring the river to save the salmons consists of the main goal they don’t have to worry about it anymore, the salmon's hypnotizes safely in the farmers waters. The problem hit farmers around the river harder than others, but they all suffer consequences badly. Restoring the river won’t cause any change to the salmon’s although their situation can already consist of solving by the farmers using other
The Nisqually tribes reserved the right to fish, hunt and gather shellfish in a treaty initiated in 1854. For their tribe, Salmon was the main food source. You could call them a “fishing people.” It was not only their way of life and culture, but a main component of their diet. Because
Though overfishing and lack of proper fisheries management has left much of the world in a critical situation, that’s not the case everywhere. Alaska’s fisheries are some of the most environmentally friendly and economically booming businesses in the world. Every year fishermen harvest hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of fish and shellfish from their waters. Fishery managers have created a system that successfully creates abundant annual fishing seasons that practically eliminates overfishing and environmental destruction. Under Alaska’s sustainable-fishing rules, which are some of the strictest in the world, these rules help prevent the overfishing that has brought ocean’s elsewhere to near catastrophe. Permit systems and reserves helped
Jeopardizing the world’s largest sockeye salmon run by operating a large mine near Bristol Bay is irresponsible. The resource exploitation by outside companies during Alaska’s territorial days should not be repeated. Alaskans need to be very concerned about the Pebble mine project spearheaded by Northern Dynasty Minerals, a Canadian company.
In order to protect vital food sources, past heritages, traditions, and cultural values for future generations, the government should not ban the practice of hunting wild animals. Author Jacqueline Thursby argues, in her article “Hunting and Feasting in Utah and Idaho” that this region is “rugged country; it is no easy task, even today, to make a living there, and wild game continues to serve as a mainstay for some families” (103). Most urban families take for granted the accessibility of the supermarket; a convenience that is hardly used for these communities in Utah and Idaho, mostly thriving off of what the earth provides for them. Banning the right to hunt in this region would be similar to closing down all providers of food in big cities,
Cod Part Two: Limits tells the story of the beginnings of mass, industrialized fishing and how it affected the cod market and availability of the cod itself. Kurlansky studies the similarities and differences between the industrialized cod fishing economies on both sides of the Atlantic, showcasing connections characteristic of World History. The development of new, improved ways to fully harness the power of the ocean meant that we could begin to truly test its limits. Line fishing, trawling, gillnetting; these methods made fishing dramatically more efficient just as they depleted the environmental stocks of fish at an unprecedented rate. Dr. Michael N Pearson writes that “Local, traditional fishers had to compete with foreign trawlers, which vacuumed up marine life in a totally random way.”1 This was a war,
Environmental history of the oceans and seas are daunting topics, either because of the vastness of the oceans and seas, the artificial boundaries, or their seemingly changelessness. Until about 1990, with Arthur McEvoy’s The Fisherman’s Problem: Ecology and the Law in California Fisheries, 1850-1980, historians largely ignored marine ecosystems as areas of research. Focusing instead on inland fisheries, environmental historians have still had to be “exhorted… to embrace this opportunity” of expanding the discourse of human impacts on marine environments. Scientists, anthropologists, archeologists, and historical ecologists have thus far dominated the production of knowledge concerning historical and current marine ecosystems. In
Anglers no longer visited them, for all the fish had died. […] No witchcraft, no enemy action had silenced the rebirth of new life in this stricken world. The people had done it themselves” (McKibben 366). The people in Carson’s town had been given a gift of fruitful nature, but took more than what the ecosystem could provide until it fell entirely out of balance. Carson predicted the fate of fisheries across the globe, that they will be drained of their resources until there is nothing left to take, and the greedy fishermen are forced to move elsewhere. The southern bluefin tuna, for example, has been placed into the critically endangered category due to both it’s large size, making it easily entangled in fishermen’s nets, and their extremely high value- a single fish alone can be worth up to $10,000 in the United States. According to the Washington Post, “The total population of southern bluefin has been reduced to about 8 percent of levels before industrial fishing” (Harden). Because overfishing rapidly catches the fish before they have time to reproduce, the southern bluefin population has been absolutely decimated, just like the fishless streams that Rachel Carson describes in her story. The oceans must be given time to rest, in order to recover from the damage that has built up over the many past decades, as Calvin B. DeWitt states in Inspirations for Sustaining Life on Earth, “we may take the fruit, but must not destroy the fruitfulness
Although evidence of fishing activities date back well before the beginning of recorded history, commercial fishing activities date back to the mid-twentieth century. There are a wide variety of methods that can be used to catch fish in bulk quantities. The original methods involved netting to skim fish out of the water and the contemporary technologies have not deviated from these roots. However, the modern methods involves using a relatively large vessel and encircling a school of fish with a net that can be pulled tight at the bottom to make sure the fish do not escape. This is a popular