Salmon Rivalry

The film Salmon confidential had initially been released on October 2nd, 2013; Since then, the status of British Columbia fish farming may just have a promising future. For too long has the fish farming industry in British Columbia gotten away with destroying the population of wild salmon. Despite this, recently the fish farming industry has been running into problems that threaten the survival of their industry in British Columbia. Currently, there are 130 floating fish farms in British Columbia, all of these fish farms have been infected with contagious diseases that are spreading to other wild salmon that travel in these areas. The companies in change of the fish farming have been trying to hide the fact that their farms have caused a major

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

For over one hundred years the salmon population in the Columbia Basin has been drastically decreasing, due to overfishing and man made obstacles. The Columbia Basin Fish Accords have given a one billion dollar grant to tribes and states for habitat restoration projects. However, the conflict still rages between the native tribes of the area, and the federal government whose roadblocks such as dams prohibit the free flowing rivers that bring salmon back to the spawning grounds. The effort to keep salmon coming back up the river while keeping the dams intact is the struggle that the federal grant hopes to solve.

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 delta smelt is an estuarine fish that is endemic to the San Francisco Bay-Delta region of California. This species was listed as endangered under the California Endangered Species Act in 2010 after extended extremely low abundance indices. The historical range of the delta smelt extended from San Pablo Bay to Sacramento along the Sacramento River and Mossdale along the San Joaquin River. Delta smelt became extinct in the southern region of their native range in the 1970s and experienced a steep population decline in the 1980s. The greatest factor in the decline of the delta smelt is the anthropological impact on their native ecosystem. The introduction of invasive species and the alteration of their habitat from variable tidal systems to leveed channels have significantly decreased suitable habitats for certain life stages of the delta smelt. Also, the highly controversial exportation of water from the Delta has had a major impact on delta smelt populations. Large water pumps in the southern region of the Delta are both detrimental to delta smelt habitat and have the direct effect of killing individuals through entrainment in the pumps. According to several previous studies, the exportation of water is one of the key factors when it comes to the genetic diversity, as well as the distribution and abundance, of the delta

The hatchery receives thousands of tourists daily and is a large part of the tourism infrastructure of Washington and the economy. According to its website, the hatchery raises 6.6 million fall chinook, 900,000 spring chinook, 750,000 Coho, 250,000 summer steelhead and 60,000 winter steelhead. The hatchery also raises pacific salmon when adult salmon arrive at the hatchery in “September and are then sorted through before spawning begins.” There are at least “40 different species of bird to view at Bonneville Fish Hatchery,” in addition to the fish species. http://www.dfw.state.or.us/resources/visitors/bonneville_hatchery_more.asp The fish hatchery raises fish for the purpose of providing them for sport, commercial, and tribal fisheries. This hatchery is one of the oldest in Oregon and one of the largest in producing fish to sustain naturally produce native fish species.

Luke Combs Mrs. Daugherty English 9 March 20, 2017 Are Fishing Regulations Strict Enough? Fishing has been around for thousands and thousands of years. It has been a crucial part to our survival and well being as a human race. Nowadays fishing is not only done for food, it has also become a recreational activity. With the large affect fishing has on our society isn’t it important we regulate what we do with the fish? Fishing regulations are used to protect what we do with the fish and the limits we have. Commercial fishing regulations need to be stricter or fishing may not be around forever. Fish populations are declining much faster than scientists ever thought. In fact the population of fish has declined by nearly fifty percent since the

The commercial fishing industry is a major source of income in my home region of Southeast Alaska accounting for about 11% of the total income to the entire region. Most of this income goes to smaller towns that rely almost entirely on the commercial fishing industry to drive their economies, and without it, these communities slowly fade away. Approximately 91% of the commercial fisheries catch is made up of salmon. Therefore, about 10% of the entire income of Southeast Alaska is reliant upon salmon alone. If you have not guessed this already, salmon are

The California Delta Smelt are a species of fish that exclusively inhabit the San Francisco Bay area. Known for this and smelling like cucumbers, these little guys are not much of a force to be reckoned with. That is, until 2007, when the species was finally listed and afforded maximum protection under the Endangered Species Act. The Endangered Species Act was created, as the second section declares, to “conserve” both “the ecosystems upon which endangered species and threatened species depend” and the species themselves, because rare species retain “esthetic, ecological, educational, historical, recreational, and scientific value” (Freyfogle 233). This idea of protecting a species from extinction

In The salmon fished in British Columbia generally migrate from the ocean and into nearby watersheds to spawn. While in the ocean, salmon depend on a diet of small fish, such as krill and herring. However with the risk of biodiversity depletion, many of these species may disappear, affecting fish populations globally and British Columbia’s salmon population. If our local salmon populations were to decrease, the long term effects would greatly disturb the killer whale and bear populations that depend on the fish, the indigenous people, the fishing business, and overall

An epic and timeless battle plays out in annually in our beautiful province. From late summer until early winter salmon valiantly fight their way back from the ocean to their home rivers where they first hatched. This is the stuff of legends and folklore! It is difficult to articulate the impact a single fish has had on the people of BC, but suffice it to say the salmon run is unquestionably a marvel of nature.

Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources is one example of an organization that is captive-breeding Lake Sturgeon for reintroduction. Reproducing a population of aquatic species can be quite difficult. It is critical when captive-breeding to maximize the effective population size (Ne). Maintaining a high Ne portrays a healthy population. In particular, it shows that the population has an equal sex ratio and the individuals are able to produce offspring. It is also critical to assure that mating pairs are not closely related individuals so inbreeding depression does not occur. Maintaining a genetically diverse and healthy captive population is very important.

Nonetheless, wild pacific salmon are fished near the shore or the ocean between May and September because they spawn in their river habitats during these months. The other challenge was that wild pacific salmon were depleting and protecting them was a great challenge as it was indirectly posing a threat to Walmart and its sea food supply chain.

Currently, controversy exists over the response controlling this size trend; microevolution or phenotypic plasticity. Microevolution is a genetic change within a species in which size selective harvesting creates an artificial selection pressure. Individuals maturing at a smaller size have more opportunity to reproduce before capture, conveying a higher fitness under exploited conditions7. Phenotypic plasticity states instead that an individual’s genes can produce different phenotypes, observable characteristics, across an environmental gradient8 with no genetic change. Fishing mortality simply reduces population density: individuals can access more food and thus mature at a smaller size9. Unlike microevolution, plasticity is unviable as a long term resolution10. However, the selection pressure of size-selective fishing may cause the loss of the genetic variation required for species to recover and adapt to future scenarios6. As the effects of both responses are challenging to disentangle11, the debate on which is occurring remains controversial. Few studies have conclusively demonstrated a genetic cause12. Methodologies claiming to isolate evolutionary trends support microevolution though plasticity effects have yet to be fully eliminated, while rapid recovery of size when exploitation ceases suggests a plastic response. With fishery yield heavily impacted by life history traits, and size-selective harvesting mandated by minimum

Environmental enrichment for fish in captive environments has not been studied often, unlike that of mammals. However, in the last decade there have been more attempts to study it. Moreover, structural environmental enrichment is the focal point at this time. Structural environmental enrichment is the addition of a structure (e.g. toys, buoys, artificial vegetation) to the rearing environment (Naslund & Johnsson, 2014). Enrichment can affect a variety of aspects of the biology of captive fish, such as, stress, injury, disease susceptibility, aggression, and energy expenditure (Gerber et al., 2015)).