Salmon : The Salmon Run

Salmon- large popular game fish, liked for their pink flesh, live in sea but come to freshwater to spawn.

They are usually found in the Northern Pacific Ocean, ranging as far south as the Sea of Japan and as far north as the Bering straight. It’s believed these sharks spend a majority of their time in epipelagic waters, but individuals have been observed in waters as deep as 660 meters. Salmon sharks are generally about 200-260 centimeters long and weigh around 220 kilograms. They are usually medium grey to black in color with a white underbelly and short, cone-shaped snouts. Overall they have a great resemblance to Great White sharks, hence the nickname “Mini Great Whites”. The primary prey for these sharks is salmon, but they also eat squid, herring, and pollock. Salmon shark are also ovoviviparous, with a litter size of 4-5

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.

Salmon have a truly incredible life cycle. Like all fish, salmon spawn from female eggs and then go on to develop into “alevin,” which is a term for newly hatched fish. First off, they derive nourishment from the yolk sac from where the salmon are born. Once the sac has been absorbed, the “fry,” or baby fish, then emerges from the river gravel and starts the search for food. Fry instinctively deal with the river currents and learn to swim together as a school right away. Anywhere from a couple days to two years old, fry will continue to live in fresh water until they start the next, “smolting,” phase. Smolting is a

Another popular attraction near downtown is the Issaquah Salmon Hatchery. As the most popular of the state's hatcheries, thousands of visitors come every year to watch the salmon migrate from the Issaquah Creek to Puget Sound. When the fish return to their birth waters to spawn each October, the city honors the occasion with the Issaquah Salmon Days festival. This two-day event features sporting events, live music and

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).

A massive threat to Alaskan salmon is the pebble mine. At the beginning of the Nushagak and Kvichak rivers in the Bristol bay area, lies the biggest salmon community in the world. If the p mine was built, it would be the 2nd largest open pit for gold/copper/molybdenum in the world.

As they do this the indigenous people set out large gill nets and fish wheels to capture the fish on they way to the spawning grounds. The salmon are now few and thin so most people have to other food sources so they do not grow hungry

A herring is used for all types of bait and for all types of fishing. In the last twenty years a lot of herring are being caught for their row which is herring eggs that people eat. According to http://www.adfg.alaska.gov/index.cfm?adfg=wildlifenews.view_article&articles_id=704 herring eggs are eaten in variety of different ways. They might be eaten fresh, as soon as their out of water. A big quota of the herring are caught by herring seiners. The seiners come back year after year as long as there is herring to be caught they will stay until they wip out the stocks and will move to where they can find

When rainbow trout breed the female digs a deep red which is a nest by laying on her side and flapping her tail to loosen up gravel, then she releases eggs which mix with the male’s milt (sperm) and both go into the red. Then the female fills the nest in. After the alevins (larvae) hatch they stay in the nest and absorb the sac that they were in, they now look like tadpoles but in two months they become fry which are young fish and leave the nest to feed. Rainbow trout breed around the age of two. Females can produce a maximum of 2000 eggs for every kilogram of body

In the North Pacific there are five species of salmon. Each kind of salmon is known by different names like, Chinook (king), sockeye (red), coho (silver), chum (dog), and pink (humpback). These are all valuable, but the Chinook or King Salmon were the prize of the Columbia River system. In the late 1800s about 2,500,000 cans of salmon nearly filled a cannery store and storage rooms in Astoria, Oregon. Fresh, salted, dried, and smoked were the only options for preserving and eating salmon before the spread of canning technology in the mid 1800s.

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.

Sturgeon have a similar life cycle to that of pacific salmon with spawning occurring when the female sturgeon releases eggs and the male sturgeon fertilizes them. Incubation happens for a week until the eggs hatch and the new fish rely on nourishment from a yolk sac until they are further grown. The yolk sac provides complete nourishment for the small sturgeon for its first 12-14 days of life. Similar to salmon entering ocean, sturgeon fish can enter areas with higher salt content to look for food. The fish can spawn once they are mature, with the males reaching it first when they are about 12 to 18 years old. Female sturgeons can only reproduce when they are older at 25 to 30 years of age. Unlike salmon, sturgeon can reproduce several times throughout their lifetime and can reproduce every year or every several years, depending on the age of the female. http://hsbc.frasersturgeon.com/rhspsec/Lesson1/Articles/Article1.pdf

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

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.