A Study of Salmon Crisi in the Pacific Northwest

A Study of Salmon Crisis in the Pacific Northwest

Introduction

The salmon crisis has erupted throughout the Pacific Northwest in recent years, meaning that lots of wild salmon stocks have fallen sharply and some have vanished. Salmon has developed into an icon and symbol for the Pacific Northwest, and it contains not only physical but also spiritual implications for this area. Many efforts have been made by various stakeholders to solve the salmon crisis, but few worked. The essay is going to study the salmon crisis in the Pacific Northwest. It will analyze the importance of salmon to this region and the consequences of salmon decline. And it will put forward some solutions, namely, selective fishing, precautionary management, legislated protection and policy implementation to solve the problem of salmon crisis.

The salmon crisis in Pacific Northwest means that in this region the wild salmon runs has severely reduced and its abundance has dropped, even after great input in hatcheries. Over the past ten decades, in Washington, Idaho, Oregon, and California, the number of salmon has vanished from about 40% of its breeding ranges in history (Nap.edu). What is worse, the rest of the salmon are critically decreased. Half a century ago, the salmon runs stood at 16 million. But now the number has dropped to 2 million. According to the American Fisheries Society, 106 stocks of wild salmon in Pacific Northwest have died out and more than 200 stocks are endangered species (Nap.edu).

Researchers have been studying the extent of salmon decrease in Pacific Northwest. For instance, “we identify 214 native naturally-spawning Pacific salmon and steelhead stocks in California, Oregon, Washington, and Idaho” that are confronted with moderate or high risk of deracination.” (Nehlsen, Williams and Lichatowich, p.4). British Columbia and Yukon affirms more than 702 salmon stocks in moderate or high risk of deracination with different assessment methods (Slaney et al). From...