Study: Oregon Wild Fish Face Extinction

[Judi Lynn]

Study: Oregon Wild Fish Face Extinction
Study Shows Nearly Half of the Native Wild Fish in Oregon at Risk of Extinction
The Associated Press

PORTLAND, Ore. Aug 30, 2005 — The first status report on wild fish in a decade suggests that nearly half the native species in the state are at risk of extinction.

Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife biologists studied 69 distinct fish populations, including all varieties of the state's salmon and steelhead species, and most of the trout population. They also assessed selected sturgeon, lamprey, dace and chub species listed under the Endangered Species Act.

Eleven of the 33 salmon and steelhead populations are at risk of irreversible decline, and seven are potentially at risk, according to a draft of the report.
(snip)

Bill Bakke, head of the Native Fish Society, a conservation group, said wild fish are probably in even worse shape than the report suggests.
(snip/...)

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory?id=1082103

[Lorien]

1. We seem to be losing on every environmental front

and neither the "conservatives" nor the Democrats seem to care. How can anyone fail to understand that OUR fate is tied to the health of our environment?

[nosmokes]

4. there is some headway being made, but it's

torturously slow. i live right on the mohawk river in oregon, a major tributary to the makenzie. and while we have an awful lot of work to be doneyet, the little mohawk which once was so full of phosphates and nitrogen and crap from the farmers and the ranchers that it was recommended to not even go wading in it. right. try telling that to a kid or a dog on a hot july afternoon. but these days you go to the mohawk watershed partnership monthly meetings and half or more of the folks there are ranchers and farmers that in exchange for doing things differently and keeping the river cleaner get tax credits from the state and the feds (some of which are in danger now), but since they have seen the positive changes in the river they are among the most active at the river reclamation work parties, where non-native species are ripped out and we plant trees along the bank and such. a lot of it really is just a matter of education.

[Joebert]

2. When I read something this uplifting...

It makes me wonder when Monsanto will announce that they are cloning fish or something as foodstuffs.

All you have to do is pay them for your food, and oh yeah, if these new fish procreate with normal ones, the normal ones become sterile...


I don't think there will be much life on Earth in 20 years at this rate.

[wli]

3. 10C temperature increase will disrupt fundamental gas/etc. cycles.

6C is enough to re-create the Permian-Triassic extinction event.

[Joebert]

5. Is it hot in here, or is it just me?

Exactly.

I wonder if any modeling has been done of what the world weather patterns will look like with the kind of temperature increases we've been building up.