Pacific Salmon

There are 7 types of pacific salmon. The most common type of fish in each category are Chinook, Coho, Sockeye, Chum, Pink, Rainbow trout, and Cutthroat. In order to maintain sufficient genetic variation in today’s society, these fish must be preserved. Furthermore, salmon are a keystone species, this means they have a disproportionate effect on the ecosystem as a whole. They are a source of food for many predators, and without salmon for food, the predator populations also drop.

            Currently, there are over 200 species of Pacific salmon that are in at least moderate danger of going extinct. Furthermore, unlike in the past, anthropogenic causes such as pollution and damns are speeding up this process of hurting the fish. In the most recent years, catches have declined by 50% or more, mainly due to climate change effects. Another detriment to wild pacific salmon comes from the aquaculture industry. Although aquaculture exists with the intent of feeding an ever increasing population, it spreads diseases to wild salmon that really hurts their population. Specific species of salmon are not in serious danger, but stocks of salmon are projected to have a continual downward trend over the next century.

            Understand the historical patterns of salmon runs can help project the future ones. In the past couple centuries records from harvesting and canneries as well as current field studies help. However before the 1800’s it is hard to know what happened. It is known that in the past 4000 years, prior to European inhabitants in the region, salmon stocks were on a continual increase. Aboriginal fishing techniques were extremely efficient and actually very similar to the practices we use today. The difference is that they didn’t take as many fish as we did. Although their technologies allowed for them to have many more fish than they took, they didn’t take them all. Furthermore, unlike today, aboriginals, as Lackey refers to them in his article, lacked the technologies that we have that harm salmon habitats. Some of these technologies include dams, development and motor-powered boats. When European colonization began to take place in the Pacific region, most of the natives to the area were decimated by Old World diseases such as measles and smallpox. From about the 1500s and on, the decline in salmon stocks are due to Europeans.

            Up until now, I’ve mainly discussed the biological factors affecting the declining salmon runs. As important as that may be, there are also ethical and cultural aspects that much be taken into consideration. From the general summary I gave of Pacific salmon, it seems apparent that salmon stocks were generally increasing up until the entrance of European influence. For thousands of years the salmon were fine, and now within the last couple hundred, things have taken a turn for the worse. It would be ideal if we could take lessons from the people native to the region. We are taking more salmon than we have, and we’re annihilating salmon stocks with our new technologies. We must have respect for the salmon so that they can begin to replenish.

 -Rebecca Teel

Lackey, R.T. 2006. Wild Salmon in North America: Historical and Policy Context. Chapter in Salmon 2100: The Future of Wild Pacific Salmon. R.T. Lackey, D.H. Lach, and S.L. Duncan, editors. American Fisheries Society. Bethesda, MD. pp.19-28