Today's salmon diary starts on a very discouraging note from Marin County, California. The SFGate has the full story on 'Crisis situation' for Marin's coho salmon
The lack of rain this winter has contributed to what fisheries biologists say is, so far, the worst return of coho salmon in the recorded history of Marin County's Lagunitas Creek watershed, one of California's most critical ecosystems for the endangered fish. Only a smattering of coho were spotted and only 20 egg nests, or redds, were seen in the two main tributaries - Lagunitas and San Geronimo creeks...
The paltry showing of redds represents an 89 percent drop in the number of returning offspring of parents that gave birth in the lush western Marin watershed three years ago.
The waterway, which winds its way through the picturesque San Geronimo Valley on the northwest side of Mount Tamalpais, typically supports the largest wild run of salmon left in the state, historically about 10 percent of California's coho population...
"It's not looking good," said Sean Hayes, a National Marine Fisheries Service biologist who monitors salmon in Scott Creek, the southernmost coho run in California, north of Davenport (Santa Cruz County). "The fish have been hammered a couple of years in a row now. If it doesn't rain, there could be a spawning failure this year, which would be catastrophic."
I'm no expert in reading snow charts, but it looks like we are just below average for this time of the year. That would seem to be good, but our rainfall has been quite light the last few years, so we really need a heavy rain/snow in the next few months. Washington is drowning in water, I wish we had some of that. It's not looking good for the next ten days. There's only one cloud on my ten day forecast. :(
Damn the Dams
More than a century ago, about 6,000 coho spawned in the system of streams every year. At that time, the salmon swam from Tomales Bay virtually to the top of Mount Tamalpais, spawning in tributaries all along the way. But industry started taking a toll almost from the day Joseph Warren Revere spotted the valley in 1846 and saw "a copious stream, fed by mountain brooks."
The redwood forests surrounding the creek were logged between 1860 and 1900. Subsequent homes and roads built along the waterway removed about 60 percent of the original riparian habitat.
The first major dam, which created Lake Lagunitas, was built in 1873. Six more dams were constructed over the next century, the largest being Peter's Dam at Kent Lake, finished in 1953 and then raised 42 feet in 1982. The dams blocked 50 percent of the historic salmon habitat, reduced the amount of gravel and increased sedimentation in the creeks.
Paola Bouley, the conservation program director for the Salmon Protection and Watershed Network, or SPAWN said that
"This is the beacon of hope for the California watershed,"... but "the fish are missing. They are gone."
One of the Healthiest Foods on Earth
For his book, The 150 Healthiest Foods On Earth, nutritionist and healthy living advocate Johnny Bowden asked colleagues, physicians, researchers and other experts in the field of nutrition to list the top 10 favorite healthy foods they actually ate, not just ones they thought were the healthiest.
What do the experts eat?
The favorite healthy foods were berries (especially blueberries), spinach and kale, nuts (especially almonds), broccoli, wild salmon and grass-fed beef...
• Wild Alaskan Salmon (not farmed salmon): One of the best sources of omega-3 fats, they're good for your heart, brain, inflammation, circulation, memory and blood sugar control.
Canadians agree to catch fewer Columbia salmon
Canadian fishermen will reduce their catch of chinook salmon by 30 percent along the West Coast of Vancouver Island, leaving more fish to migrate home to the Columbia River, under new treaty provisions ratified by the United States and Canada this week.
The United States will provide Canadian authorities with $30 million to help compensate the fishing fleet hit by the cutbacks, according to the new revisions in the Pacific Salmon Treaty...
The Canadians, in turn, wanted to reduce fishing pressure on chinook salmon from coastal British Columbia, which migrate north to Alaska. The United States agreed to reduce the catch of chinook off Southeast Alaska by 15 percent.
Fly-Fishing Report
Dry Season Causes Cuts to Water Flows from No. Cal to So. Cal
The effect of the dry spell has been aggravated by court-ordered restrictions on pumping water out of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta for human uses to protect dwindling fish populations. Federal courts ordered limits on water exports in December 2007, and last month, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service ordered a continuation of those limits to protect the delta smelt, a small fish listed as a threatened species.
The Department of Water Resources said those moves could permanently reduce by up to 50% water deliveries to cities, farms and businesses.
Gold Dredging Disturbs Salmon
The North Fork of the American River and the Middle Fork of the Feather River have been named among other Northern California waterways in a petition to limit suction dredging for gold...
The petition is one more measure to protect fish habitat, which already is endangered by development and commercial and industrial activities.
"Dredging disturbs spawning gravels and kills salmon eggs and immature lamprey that reside in the gravel for up to seven years before maturing," said Toz Soto, lead fisheries biologist for the Karuk tribe.
"In a system like the Klamath River, where salmon can be stressed due to poor water quality, having a dredge running in the middle of the stream affects the fish’s ability to reach their spawning grounds," Soto added.
The groups want Department of Fish and Game Director Don Koch to order emergency restrictions on where and when suction dredging can take place — the same authority used to restrict recreational and commercial fishing when fish runs are low.
There's only three months left until the decision will be made if this year's Pacific salmon season will be opened or closed. They closed it last year on April 11th. Most signs point towards another year of closure and little hope for next year's salmon runs. We really need this infrastructure plan to go through, so that the states of California and Oregon have the freedom in their budgets to help. The salmon fishermen got a $170M bailout, now we need a federal bailout for the salmon themselves. For more information please check out my BIG SALMON DIARY
Please ask the transition team to help Pacific Salmon. If you don't mind please click this link and copy/paste in this.
With the right leadership and policies, we can craft science-based and economical solutions to help save the national treasure of wild salmon for future generations:
- Restoring Economic Opportunities
Restoring the Snake River by removing the four costly lower Snake River dams will put the Snake River to work again as an economic engine of the Northwest by creating thousands of family-wage jobs. A working Snake River will revitalize communities and save billions of taxpayer dollars on failed federal salmon recovery efforts.
- Building a Clean Energy Future
Removing the four lower Snake River dams will strengthen our investment in alternative and renewable energy and conservation to ensure an energy future that is truly clean, efficient and affordable.
- Fighting Climate Change
Ensuring abundant runs of wild salmon in a changing climate means reconnecting them to key habitat strongholds. The removal of the four lower Snake River dams will help salmon return to some of the biggest, wildest, healthiest and best-protected habitat remaining in the continental United States.
I'm pretty happy to see this new Obama administration come in. The last was not salmon friendly whatsoever. Believe it or not they thought that dams are a natural part of the river. And Larry Craig and Gordon Smith thought of salmon as a nuisance. So them being replaced is quite good news for salmon and friends of the environment!
To conclude, the sealion scapegoating is really spreading like wildfire. MSNBC today just regurgitated this story about sea lions hurting salmon populations. This is really disappointing. Sure, sea lions eat salmon, but the fact that you are noticing it is the real news. It seems like we're really taking a piece meal approach to this, by killing sea lions and cormorants and transporting salmon around dams and the worst of these is Schwarzenegger's Vision Delta. V-D is just another way to ship Nor Cal water down south. We need an overall BIG plan administered by the federal and state government. Mike Thompson is taking some steps to secure funding through Obama's infrastructure plan. I think that's the way to go. We need to get more funding for CCC (California Conservation Corp and like programs. This program according to rescued diariest JessieCW the CCC has restored 1800 miles of streams and estuaries critical to maintaining salmon habitats. Please if you haven't already contact change.gov and request aid for salmon and increased funding for the CCC and even a resurrection of the national Civilian Conservation Corps.
UPDATE: This salmon video from Vladislaw is just great :)