Salmon disappearance could bring fishing ban

[babylonsister]

Salmon disappearance could bring fishing ban


SAN FRANCISCO, California (AP) -- The stunning collapse of one of the West Coast's biggest wild salmon runs has prompted even cash-strapped fishermen to call for an unprecedented shutdown of salmon fishing off the coasts of California and Oregon.


Wildlife official John Rueth carries a salmon being moved to a tank in Shasta Lake, California, last month.

"There's likely no fish, so what are you going to be fishing for?" asked Duncan MacLean, a fisherman from Half Moon Bay. "I have no problem sitting out to rebuild this resource if that's what's necessary."

The Pacific Fishery Management Council meets in Seattle this week and will likely vote to impose the most severe restrictions ever on West Coast salmon fishing to protect California's dwindling chinook stocks.

The Sacramento River chinook run is usually one of the most productive on the Pacific Coast, providing the bulk of the salmon caught by sport and commercial trollers off California and Oregon.

But only about 90,000 adult chinook returned to the Central Valley last fall -- the second lowest number on record and well below the number needed to maintain a healthy fishery. That number is projected to fall to a record low of 58,000 this year. By contrast, 775,000 adults were counted in the Sacramento River and its tributaries as recently as 2002.

"This stock got off-the-charts bad very suddenly," said Donald McIsaac, the council's executive director. "It's a very, very severe situation."

more...

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/04/07/salmon.collapse.ap/index.html?eref=rss_topstories

[sam sarrha]

1. no doubt china is still Ghost Netting... >>LINK>>

http://coastguardnews.com/china-us-and-japan-cooperate-against-high-seas-drift-nets/2007/09/08/

they aren't going to stop.... they own us, they will do as they please, if we complain they will turn the container ships around and a put us back into the dark ages.. no shoes, food, airplanes<1/2 of all Boeing is built there> clothes, etc.. all stores will be empty.. we will be picking thru the dump. we cant even make the machines to make shoes anymore.. we are screwed

[kristopher]

2. There is a lot of antiAsian bigotry around here.

Apropos of nothing you decide that it must be the fault of those dastardly Asians?

From the referenced article:
The council has asked state and federal scientists to research 46 possible causes, including water diversions, habitat destruction, dam operations, agricultural pollution, marine predators and ocean conditions.

Many scientists point to unusual weather patterns that disrupted the marine food chain along the Pacific Coast in 2005, when thousands of seabirds washed up dead or starving because they couldn't find enough to eat.

Researchers believe those poor ocean conditions also devastated the juvenile salmon that would have returned to the Central Valley last year. Young chinook couldn't find the tiny shrimp and fish they depend on to survive.

"The fish went to the ocean in 2005 and found nothing to eat when they got there. They either starved to death or got so weak from not eating enough that they got eaten by predators," said Bill Peterson, an oceanographer with the National Marine Fisheries Service.

Peterson said ocean conditions have improved since then, which could help revive West Coast salmon populations.

[GliderGuider]

3. Yeah, they figured a moratorium would revive the Northern Cod stocks too.

That was 15 years ago. No revival. Obviously conditions will be different in this case, but I'm just saying that anyone who is hoping that a two or three year moratorium will revive a moribund fish population, given the current state of the world's oceans, probably shouldn't hold their breath.

[kristopher]

4. It will all depend on how severe the damage is and how persistant the problem is.

That's this case I'm referring to.

[hatrack]

5. If the failure of the upwelling continues, then they can ban fishing until Doomsday . . .

When it's something as fundamental as "sorry, no food out here for the next few months", fishing restrictions will at best keep things from getting worse.

But rebuilding stocks? Questionable.

[phantom power]

6. It used to take real committment to ban something until doomsday...

But now, that's what? Sometime in 2nd quarter, 2015?

[depakid]

7. December 21, 2012

;-)