"Alarming" Declines In Puget Sound/BC Coho, Chinook Salmon Survival Rates, Overall Numbers - PI

[hatrack]

Coho and chinook are in decline – but curiously, pink salmon survival appears to be increasing, Richard Beamish of the Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans told participants in the biennial Puget Sound/Georgia Basin Ecosystem Conference.

The findings have implications for Puget Sound salmon as well, because recent research also shows that young salmon from south of the border make their way north into Canadian waters, Beamish said. In fact, scientists at the conference advocated that people stop thinking of Puget Sound and Georgia Strait as two separate bodies of water, but rather consider it all the "Salish Sea." Native Americans in this area were known as the Salish or the Coast Salish.

Scientists have long known that only a small percentage of the juvenile salmon that leave freshwater rivers to live in the sea actually return to spawn at the end of their lives. But the new research shows that percentage has drastically decreased since 1980. In coho, it dropped from 10 percent to 0.5 percent, Beamish said. In chinook, it decreased from 1 percent to 0.1 percent.

One reason appears to be the early deaths of juvenile salmon. Measurements are imprecise, but Beamish's research shows that over the last 12 years, the survival of coho in Georgia Strait in their first four months dropped dramatically. About 15 percent of the fish disappear in those first four months, Beamish said: "The trend is real. A very high percentage are dying in the first four months."

EDIT

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/surge-in-obesity-as-irish-teens-pile-on-the-pounds-1634058.html

[pscot]

1. Could it have anything to do

with the fact that nobody wants to eat pinks? They aren't netted or farmed, and there are no pink salmon hatcheries. Result: lots of pink salmon.

[Bigmack]

2. Are you sure you've got the "right" link posted

for this one? Surge in Obesity? Thanks for this post, but as Washingtonians, we'd really like the link here - Ms Bigmack

[hatrack]

3. You're right - corrected link below!

:hi:

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/399429_sound10.html