To Many Salmon in the Sea

[fish brain]

To me ocean survival and feed supply seem to be the main issues. I know of two "old timers" both dead now who used to talk about fish returning to the Cowichan system. One who grew up in Cherry Point talked about not being able to sleep when the salmon came in due to the sound jumping in the bay, She lived right on the ocean front. The other who lived near Fourways about a half km from the ocean would talk of knowing it was time to go fishing, when they could hear the fish jumping in the bay from the farm.
Our oceans and rivers can support WAYYYY more fish. To me the question is why aren't they? Are they leaving the rivers in sufficient numbers?
Are they dying prematurely? Do they have enough to eat if they survive to the ocean? Why not?

 

[agentaqua]

Salish Sea Chinook salmon exhibit weaker coherence in early marine survival trends than coastal populations
Casey P. Ruff1 | Joseph H. Anderson2 | Iris M. Kemp3 | Neala W. Kendall2 | Peter A. Mchugh2,4 | Antonio Velez-Espino5 | Correigh M. Greene6 | Marc Trudel5,7 | Carrie A. Holt5 | Kristen E. Ryding2 | Kit Rawson8
1Skagit River System Cooperative, La Conner, WA, U.S.A.
2Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, Olympia, WA, U.S.A.
3Long Live the Kings, Seattle, WA, U.S.A.
4Department of Watershed Sciences, Utah State University & Eco Logical Research, Logan, UT, U.S.A.
5Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Pacific Biological Station, Nanaimo, BC, Canada
6National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Marine Fisheries Service, Northwest Fisheries Science Center, Fish Ecology Division, Seattle, WA, U.S.A.
7Department of Biology, University of Victoria, Victoria, BC, Canada
8Swan Ridge Consulting, Mount Vernon, WA, U.S.A.
Correspondence
Casey P. Ruff, Skagit River System
Cooperative, La Conner, WA, U.S.A.
Email: cruff@skagitcoop.org
Funding information
Pacific Salmon Commission’s Southern
Endowment Fund

Abstract
Identifying factors that influence anadromous Pacific salmon (Oncorhynchus spp.)
population dynamics is complicated by their diverse life histories and large geographic
range. Over the last several decades, Chinook salmon (O. tshawytscha) populations
from coastal areas and the Salish Sea have exhibited substantial variability in
abundance. In some cases, populations within the Salish Sea have experienced persistent
declines that have not rebounded. We analyzed a time series of early marine
survival from 36 hatchery Chinook salmon populations spanning ocean entry years
1980–2008 to quantify spatial and temporal coherence in survival. Overall, we
observed higher inter-population variability in survival for Salish Sea populations
than non-Salish Sea populations. Annual survival patterns of Salish Sea populations
covaried over smaller spatial scales and exhibited less synchrony among proximate
populations relative to non-Salish Sea populations. These results were supported by
multivariate autoregressive state space (MARSS) models which predominantly identified
region-scale differences in survival trends between northern coastal, southern
coastal, Strait of Georgia, and Puget Sound population groupings. Furthermore,
Dynamic Factor Analysis (DFA) of regional survival trends showed that survival of
southern coastal populations was associated with the North Pacific Gyre Oscillation,
a large-scale ocean circulation pattern, whereas survival of Salish Sea populations
was not. In summary, this study demonstrates that survival patterns in Chinook salmon
are likely determined by a complex hierarchy of processes operating across a
broad range in spatial and temporal scales, presenting challenges to the management
of mixed-stock fisheries.

 

[agentaqua]

Evidence for depressed growth of juvenile Pacific salmon (Oncorhynchus) in Johnstone and Queen Charlotte Straits, British Columbia
M. L. Journey1,2,3 | M. Trudel4,5,6 | G. Young1 | B. R. Beckman2
1School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
2Environmental and Fisheries Sciences Division, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Seattle, WA, USA
3Lynker Technology, Leesburg, VA, USA
4Pacific Biological Station, Department of Fisheries and Ocean, Nanaimo, BC, Canada
5Department of Biology, University of Victoria, Station CSC, Victoria, BC, Canada
6Department of Fisheries and Ocean, St. Andrews Biological Station, St. Andrews, NB, Canada
Correspondence
M. L. Journey, Environmental and Fisheries
Sciences Division, Northwest Fisheries
Science Center, National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration, Seattle, WA,
USA.
Email: Meredith.Journey@noaa.gov
Funding information
Pacific Salmon Commission Southern Fund
Agreement, Grant/Award Number: SF-2012-
I-18; Department of Fisheries and Oceans
Canada; National Marine Fisheries Service

Abstract
Juvenile salmon traveling northwestward to the Pacific Ocean from the Strait of
Georgia migrate through and take residence in both Johnstone and Queen Charlotte
Straits. Johnstone Strait is a narrow and deep passage that is tidally mixed daily,
resulting in a nearly isothermal water column, surface to the bottom (approximately
250 m). The trophic gauntlet hypothesis (McKinnell, Curchitser, Groot, Kaeriyama, &
Trudel, 2014) suggests that Johnstone Strait provides a poor growth environment
for fish required to transit this area during their migration, due to the oceanographic
conditions found there. Using insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF1), a hormone used to
assess short-term growth (within 5–7 days) in fishes, growth was measured in individual
juvenile salmon from five species in the Northern Strait of Georgia, Johnstone
Strait, Queen Charlotte Strait, and Queen Charlotte Sound in the summer of 2012,
2013, and 2014. All five juvenile salmon species had significantly lower IGF1 concentration
in both Johnstone and Queen Charlotte Straits as compared to the
Northern Strait of Georgia. These results are consistent with some aspects of the
tropic gauntlet hypothesis as growth of juvenile salmon in both Johnstone and
Queen Charlotte Straits were significantly lower than found in the Northern Strait
of Georgia across all salmon species and all years. In addition, these results demonstrate
the utility of growth indices for assessing the effects of environmental variation
on juvenile salmon in the presence of a strong ecological driver.

 

[fish brain]

Ok so please excuse my lack of understanding here, but what exactly are these two articles saying? I read that they dont know what is going on, or why. But I find the presentation confusing and feel like I'm missing something.

 

[agentaqua]

The pertinent tidbits (to me) I bolded - basically that the Salish Sea Chinook populations from the Salish Sea seem to be different than Chinook from other coastal areas and don't track the same ups and downs - that the Salish Sea populations have experienced persistent declines that have not rebounded. In addition, Johnstone Strait is a particularly poor environment for juvie salmon survival.

That's my take home from these 2 articles, anyways...

 

[fish brain]

The pertinent tidbits (to me) I bolded - basically that the Salish Sea Chinook populations from the Salish Sea seem to be different than Chinook from other coastal areas and don't track the same ups and downs - that the Salish Sea populations have experienced persistent declines that have not rebounded. In addition, Johnstone Strait is a particularly poor environment for juvie salmon survival.

That's my take home from these 2 articles, anyways...

So using these two tidbits of information, how do we go about increasing salmon numbers up and down the coast?
I'm not trying to be snarky, I want to keep fishing and worry that I am too late to help make a difference.

 

[agentaqua]

Great question. I guess would start by asking the question - why is SoG/JS so poor for Smolt survival? What is different?

 

[terrin]

Great question. I guess would start by asking the question - why is SoG/JS so poor for Smolt survival? What is different?

Fish Farms.