Big Fish Story: Where's the Salmon?

by Andrea Millar — May 19, 2008

Is wild-caught Pacific salmon available where you live? If it is, it probably had to cross Canada to get there. In the continental Northwest, the Chinook salmon industry has effectively collapsed, with only a third of the population necessary to keep levels sustainable projected to return this fall. According to the Associated Press, this will represent a total revenue loss of $290 million. As such, it's been declared an official disaster. This means that California, Oregon, and Washington will be eligible for federal aide.

It's unclear how that money will get to those who need it most. The Klamath River is part of a list that includes the Sacramento and the Snake where the salmon population has plummeted. While fish markets, grocery stores, restaurants, and fishermen will feel the crunch downriver, the native people of the Klamath are feeling the loss as a blow to their way of life. The Hupa, Karuk, and especially Yurok nations have depended on the salmon for centuries for food and commerce--and have warned about this very collapse for years. For those who live on the mouth of the Klamath, the signs have been clear: increased lice, warmer temperatures, and decreased numbers. They point to the hydroelectric dams as the major contributors to the decline. In the Columbia Basin, the Bush administration has advised implementing new construction to make the dams safer for the salmon, a plan that some are calling a band-aid for a potentially mortal wound. In the meantime, commercial fishing of wild salmon along the Pacific coast is mostly prohibited for the duration of the season.

Right now, what can you do? You can start with supporting local efforts to support the salmon. This is a starkly political issue (just ask hydroelectric dam owners Berkshire-Hathaway!) with no easy solutions in sight at the moment. Even as complicated as the salmon issue becomes, habits like water conservation, eliminating pesticides, and cleaning up runoff all have an effect. In Washington's King County, you can even be a Watcher. And hopefully some of the 400,000 young salmon released recently into the San Francisco Bay will make it far enough for salmon watchers nationwide.