Record Salmon Returns From Alaska to California
This year from Alaska to California rivers and streams on the Pacific Coast of North America are counting record breaking numbers of salmon. Here’s a collection of news clipping reporting on the fact that the fish have returned. Naturally scientists are looking for something unusual that might have happened in the open ocean salmon territory that could account for the hundreds of millions of extra fish. The only event that can be found is the spectacular plankton bloom that resulted from our ocean pasture restoration project last summer. When the volcano of 2008 brought back an extra 40 million sockeye salmon to the Fraser River in 2010 I wrote the the song 40 Million Salmon Can’t Be Wrong. It is pure joy this year following our efforts to improve on the volcanic bloom of 2008 to hear a new cohort of salmon singing. For some context in 2012 the Alaska catch was 124 million fish, 2011 it was 176 million fish, in 2010 = 175 million, in 2009 = 162 million and in 2008 = 146 million fish.
Record Salmon Returns
Pink salmon reaching Fraser River in massive numbers
Last month, there were so few sockeye salmon in the Fraser River that all fishing was banned. But this week, with wave after wave of pink salmon arriving, the fishery was opened and processing plants were quickly overwhelmed by the huge numbers of salmon coming in. The massive return of one species – pinks – coming on the heels of a disastrous run of another – sockeye – may be linked to a dramatic shift in ocean conditions last year. And it has raised questions about the possible role of a controversial experiment that took place when the Haida Salmon Restoration Corp. dumped iron material in the ocean last summer, stimulating plankton growth just as the pink salmon were moving through the area. September 26, 2013 at 8:28 AM
Pink salmon-mania has faded, but coho bite picks up in northern Puget Sound rivers
Posted by Mark Yuasa
Seattle Pink Salmon
It has been one spectacular year for pink salmon and now all the rivers are literally jam packed with humpies all up and down the Puget Sound region. “We’ve got freaking pinks everywhere and it is ridiculous,” said Brett Barkdull, a Washington state Fish and Wildlife biologist. “They are still in the rivers, but the angler effort has really died off, and everyone is “humpied out.” It has been humpy city for a long time, and it will be a big, big escapement.”
Record run leads to relaxation of last Columbia salmon fishing rules
By Bill Monroe, Special to The Oregonian on September 24, 2013 at 7:20 PM, updated September 24, 2013 at 8:25 PM
Columbia River Salmon Record Numbers
The 2013 fall chinook salmon run into the Columbia River has broken all records.Jamie Francis Elated by a record-smashing fall chinook salmon run into the Columbia River, Oregon and Washington fish managers decided Tuesday afternoon to relax the river’s last sportfishing restriction. Beginning Thursday, anglers in the lower Columbia River no longer have to release unclipped chinook salmon between Buoy 10 at the river’s mouth and Warrior Rock on Sauvie Island. The restriction was in place to protect wild salmon spawning in lower tributaries, but biologists said those salmon have already entered their home waters and are largely gone from the Columbia. Regulations are now uniform from the mouth upriver past all four dams into Washington. Anglers are allowed two salmon or steelhead per day and chinook need not be fin-clipped, although steelhead and coho still must be missing an adipose fin. Anglers in a boat may also continue to fish until limits are taken by everyone in the boat. Biologists, who predicted a healthy run of more than 600,000 chinook, now believe the run into the Columbia will be close to 1.2 million, far exceeding all records kept for the river since the first dams were constructed and counts began. By Monday evening, 818,600 adult fall chinook had been counted at Bonneville.
Not a bad result for me, an old fishing boat, and eleven shipmates.
WE CAN BRING THE FISH BACK!