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There are lots of pet theories about what's causing this year's Sacramento salmon disaster: overfishing, timber cutting, dioxin poisoning, dams, delta pumps and water withdrawals, predation (by humboldt squid, sea lions, striped bass and terns, to name a few suspects) and global warming. Really, they all contribute to the problem and all have played a part in the long, slow demise of salmon.

Scientists seem to think that the poor ocean conditions in the summer of 2005, involving anemic cold-water upwellings and food chain productivity , may have lead to the disastrous collapse of the Sacramento population that we're seeing now. (The fish populations all along the West Coast seem to have been impacted to some extent.) But there's no doubt that the collapse on the Sacramento wouldn't be so bad if things weren't terrible already.

Closing the fishing season is a necessary emergency step that will probably break many fishermen and fishing-related businesses (that would be broken in any case, due to a simple lack of anything to catch) In turn, the fishery may lose many of its strongest, most interested advocates. Who will be left fighting to reverse the deluge of problems facing salmon? Do we have the political will to restore salmon populations to levels that will let them survive another hungry summer at sea?

Everyone with a pet theory, to some extent, is right. But if restoration of this species is a priority, we need to address ALL of the problems facing these fish, and not pretend there is any one cause or a single convenient solution.

posted 5 years, 2 months ago
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