California Salmon stocks :California salmon Stocks are Crashing .2023

Banning fishing seems to be the case.

This week, officials are expected to ban commercial and recreational salmon fisheries in California by 2023. Many will be eliminated in nearby Oregon.

Reason: Depletion of fish stocks is linked to a double digit amount of water produced with extreme heat and drought that will occur with climate change. According to the researchers, there are also new threats in the ocean that are unknown but may be related to global warming.

Scientists and fishermen lived with bad numbers. Conditions were critical a few years ago, when salmon were young and small in the shallow, warmest waters and rivers in California. But when the fish numbers came in and the models underestimated the numbers, the numbers were even lower than expected.

Of all the salmon in California, the Chinook is the last to be viable for commercial fishing. But this year, fewer than 170,000 are expected to return to Central Valley rivers. This is up from a million at the end of 1995.

While some dives are normal, this one is not.

"California salmon are in serious trouble," said Nate Mantova, a scientist who leads a group of salmon ecologists and biologists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Fisheries Association in Santa Cruz, Calif.

The closing costs are high and there are no new salmon in California this year, while there is little or no effect outside the country.

Salmon are hardy creatures that live longer on land than humans. They travel hundreds of miles from freshwater streams where they enter saltwater and return to waterfalls on their return journey. But what's happening in California and Oregon, on the southern side of the range, scientists say, could prevent what's happening in colder waters further afield.

"Many salmon populations throughout the Pacific are doing very well," Dr Mantua said.

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Pacific salmon are usually harvested from areas of Oregon, Washington and Alaska. It's a complicated picture. Some species, such as sockeye in Alaska's Bristol Bay, thrive. But some chinook stocks in the north have fallen. Overall, scientists say, the picture is grim.

Attacks on California salmon began two centuries ago. First, the fur traders removed the beavers, whose burrows created a unique salmon habitat. Then came the gold rush, with hydraulic mining that sealed the streams with gravel. Residents have drained and drained the great delta of California and beyond. Next came the dams, technological devices that provided water for the growing population and turned California into an agricultural powerhouse. In the process of all this, California lost about 90 percent of its water.

The loss of these or other habitats means that the fish cannot cope with the latest attack: climate change, mainly caused by the burning of fossil fuels.

While fresh rain and snow in California will help fish recover in three years, when this year's spawning fish are ready to be harvested at sea, the strength of flow with failure. Strong storms can destroy the banks of rivers where salmon lay their eggs.

Those who depend on fish are facing a painful situation.

Keith Parker, chief fisheries scientist for the Yurok tribe, whose members fish the Klamath River in California, described the situation as tragic. "We lost our language," Mr Parker said. "We lost our religion for a long time. We lost our fish. So we lost." When there are more fish, Mr. Parker, you can see the difference in people.

The commercial salmon industry plans to apply for federal disaster relief. They don't just blame the drought; They complain about providing water for agriculture.

"The fight over the water for salmon has been going on for years," said Glenn Aspen, executive director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Union. "Our industry needs to leave water in the river. Big Ag is trying to bring river water to the fields.

It's a hotly debated issue in California politics.

Several species of salmon are already listed as threatened or endangered in California, but in the Central Valley, no strong efforts have been made during the fall, which is true in California rivers. It's strong enough for business or entertainment. But not this year.

Also known as king salmon, Chinook, with a high fat content and buttery taste, is generally the most valuable of Pacific salmon.

"It's sad on two levels," said Sarah Bates, a salmon fisherman from San Francisco. "Loss of income and job losses are frustrating, but the deeper understanding of what is happening to our ecosystems and food sources is devastating."

Central Valley hatcheries produce about 30 million chinook a year, largely protected from adverse conditions in the rivers. In bad years, the young salmon are loaded onto trucks and taken to sea. But these fish have disappeared.

Scientists are concerned that the return of aquaculture production is due to the weakening of the genetic stability of salmon. Once in the ocean, the fish will face another, yet unknown, threat.

California's marine fisheries were the largest cause of all other closures that occurred in 2008 and 2009. The oceans off California warmed at times predicted by climate change models. At the end of the century, said Steve Lindley, director of the Division of Fisheries Ecology for NOAA's Southwest Fisheries Science Center. What saves the salmon is the cold water and the food that grows on the beach. However, this growth was stopped in the mid-2000s and the salmon left less food. The researchers found that they were hungry and less likely to be taken by seabirds.

Threats at sea are smaller, but still important, scientists say. Another thing that can be increased is the amount of anchovy. In recent years, salmon anchovies have become increasingly common in their diet. But anchovies contain an enzyme that breaks down thiamine, or vitamin B1, and salmon is a source of thiamine deficiency. (Scientists connect the dots when the baby fish begin to swim and die. Flushing the hatchery water with thiamine has been implicated.)

Increasingly, according to NOAA Fisheries scientists, the models used to predict stocks and manage fisheries are not working as well as they should.

"We continue to be surprised, even though we try to lower expectations every year because of past shocks," said Dr. Lindley. This makes it difficult to adjust the fishing seasons and ensure that the catch does not exceed the target.

What's worse, he said, is that an El Nino pattern is on the horizon, which could wash cold waters along the coast. "That's what scares some of us the most," said Dr. Lindley.

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