Pacific Salmon Disappear in California and Oregon

The number of breeding-age Chinook salmon in the rivers and streams from Oregon to Baja California has plummeted over the past two years.

The largest collapse of Pacific salmon stocks on record may be due to unusual ocean conditions or the diversion of river flow for agriculture and the arid cities of Southern California, according to competing views from conservation groups and government agencies.

The U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service says its fall 2007 survey of breeding-age Chinook salmon in the Sacramento River basin counted less than 6 percent of the long-term average number of the fish.

And while fishermen and some environmental groups say that increased pumping of fresh water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta is to blame for the precipitous drop, federal and state fishery managers and biologists point to the highly unusual ocean conditions of 2005, which may have left the fingerling salmon with little or none of the rich nourishment provided by the normal upwelling currents near the shore.

Whatever the cause, this year’s commercial salmon fishing season is likely to be canceled.

Photo: Bonneville Power Administration

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