Hungry hungry orcas - looks like more fishing restrictions to come!

[chris73]

Some of you are just scraping the surface of the issue. You have to remember two important things:
!) Craven is right, many of former intact salmon streams are within or near urban areas now and the impacts of human population are so massive and profound that whatever is left of those streams simply cannot sustain a salmon population as before. Without hatcheries there would be no or very few salmon (and steelhead for that matter) in those urban streams and there would be literally no salmon fishing anywhere between mid Vancouver Island to California. Sadly, all the money and all the best intentions would not bring those streams back to sustain a wild salmon population that would even allow harvesting. There just is no true coexistence for salmon and humans under dense population conditions. And for exact those reasons were hatchery put in place. At the beginning and in their technology-confident ignorance, people thought they can simply replace nature with a bucket-bred salmon culture. So they never thought twice before daming rivers and raping spawning and rearing habitat. Since the late 80's they realized that hatcheries were not an equal replacement for nature. And that leads to the second important point.

2) After they realized that hatcheries cannot replace nature completely, they changed hatchery programs (not all but many) to enhancement programs where streams are allowed to naturally produce up to their compromised capacity and then hatcheries supplement the rest that nature simply cannot produce anymore but what is needed to satisfy the demand for harvesting and feeding the ecosystem. Without those hatcheries the entire ecosystem and our desired harvest levels would have to downgrade to a much lower category because those urban or urban-near streams cannot sustain a higher level by themselves. And make no mistake to think you could reverse evolution and return those urban streams to pre-urbanization conditions. Not happening. There is certainly a lot of room for improvement on many of our urban streams but not to a level that we could have sustainable salmon stocks without hatcheries. Whoever believes that is a dreamer - disconnected from reality.

Hatcheries are here to stay - forever - if we want to see and fish for salmon near our cities. Get used to them and support more of them on many of the other compromised streams that will never come back to harvestable levels without enhancement!

 

[tincan]

Save the Seals!!! Cull the Orcas!!!

"Experts estimate adult orcas need up to about 290,000 calories a day. That's 10 to 34 salmon a day, depending on the size and species, or over 800,000 salmon a year."

Hey I'm no mathmatologist... but, 10 - 34 salmon per day = 3,650 - 12,410 salmon per year per orca. Where is this 800,000 salmon a year number coming from? Even if there were talking about the entire southern resident pod of 88 whales we're talking about a max of appx 100,000 salmon. Regardless, they do eat a lot of fish and we (humans) aren't the only ones interested in sustainable salmon stocks.

 

[SerengetiGuide]

"Experts estimate adult orcas need up to about 290,000 calories a day. That's 10 to 34 salmon a day, depending on the size and species, or over 800,000 salmon a year."

Hey I'm no mathmatologist... but, 10 - 34 salmon per day = 3,650 - 12,410 salmon per year per orca. Where is this 800,000 salmon a year number coming from? Even if there were talking about the entire southern resident pod of 88 whales we're talking about a max of appx 100,000 salmon. Regardless, they do eat a lot of fish and we (humans) aren't the only ones interested in sustainable salmon stocks.

It's government math

 

[finaddict]

It's government math

Mathmatologist?!?!? You mean mathematician? Sure am glad you guys are guides and not tax accountants. ;-)

12,410 salmon /year/ Orca x 88 Orcas = 1,092,000 salmon per year.

 

[profisher]

Has anyone proved that our local pods remain on a strictly salmon diet during the winter months when they disappear offshore? Researchers aren't even sure where they go during the winter so not sure how they would ever know if they eat the same food 365 days of the year. From what I have been told Chum also make up a decent part of their preferred diet. Takes them down a notch in my mind as to how intelligent they really are.

 

[Charlie]

Actually concerning their diet, "based on field observations of predation and on the stomach contents of stranded killer whales collected over a 20-year period. In total, 22 species of fish and 1 species of squid were documented in the diet of resident-type killer whales; 12 of these are previously unrecorded as prey of O. orca. Despite the diversity of fish species taken, resident whales have a clear preference for salmon prey. In field observations of feeding, 96% of fish taken were salmonids. Six species of salmonids were identified from prey fragments, with chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) being the most common. The stomach contents of stranded residents also indicated a preference for chinook salmon. On rare occasions, resident whales were seen to harass marine mammals, but no kills were confirmed and no mammalian remains were found in the stomachs of stranded residents."

Then where do they go and what do the eat in the winter? "Documented sightings of Southern Resident killer whales at the mouth of the Columbia River during the winter months, especially L pod (as noted in NOAA’s Draft Proposed Recovery Plan for Southern Resident Killer Whales), underline the importance of this source of food for the whales. Considering that salmon coming out of the mouth of the Columbia each year historically numbered in the 10-16 million range, this was an important source of food for these whales during the crucial winter months. Many of the Columbia Basin salmon runs, especially fall chinook, migrate close to the coast where Southern Residents are frequently spotted during winter research cruises."

 

[Islandgirl]

Jockey,
You are right on. Hatcheries are a necessary evil right now, but the best thing we can do is restore the habitat and get the hell out of the way. For all the reasons you have stated hatcheries are only a stop gap measure and their existence is a two edged sword that plays into the hands of those that would destroy the fish habitat and environment as well as apparently giving us "more" fish for now. The gains are illusory, temporary and hatcheries do not address the underlying problems. If we paid more attention to protecting the greatest "hatchery" on this planet, the rivers, streams, estuaries, and lakes of B.C. and the ocean itself we would not need any artificial life support for the runs.

It does not really matter what habitat is restored, when the seine fleet intercepts most of the fish heading up the river. The fish in the seine boat don't spawn. With modern electronics these boats are so efficient and take everything, when they are allowed.

 

[Englishman]

Right on IG. Naturally, restoring habitats to their historic productivity does not mean we are "all done". An unregulated free-for-all fishery obviously cannot be allowed either. Eventually, seine netting must be severely restricted or banned, in favour of selective, closer to the river fisheries that can enable management of individual stocks. Wholesale "catch everything in the locality" fishing techniques do not allow that......But one thing at a time - these resource management problems with its multiplicity of stakeholders and complexity of regulations can be overwhelming if we attempt to figuratively "boil the ocean" right now.....

 

[beemer]

Has anyone proved that our local pods remain on a strictly salmon diet during the winter months when they disappear offshore? Researchers aren't even sure where they go during the winter so not sure how they would ever know if they eat the same food 365 days of the year. From what I have been told Chum also make up a decent part of their preferred diet. Takes them down a notch in my mind as to how intelligent they really are.

hey profisher , It is pretty well established that the Southern Resident population exist on chinook and chum. As discussed the chinook count in our region has been decimated in the last 100 years.The winter supply of chinook in the California and Oregon rivers has been reduced to nothing from excessive irrigation and dam systems. Some resident killerwhale groups in other areas have adapted to eating other fish. The Northern resident group were filmed last winter taking halibut off longlines , so I guess it is possible for them to change diets.

beemer
www.killerwhale.ca

 

[ratherbefishing]

Love DFO or not...If you want hatchery production, want enforcement, want research, want... it is NOT going to happen. I have friends that work at DFO (yes they are friends) that do good hands on work BUT they've seen 5-10% budget cuts for each of the last 4 years for ALL programs (including hatcheries) and seen a staffing freeze on the "ground level do-good" field crews. That doesn't leave much when all people want is more. Talk to the Conservative government and your MP about that!

 

[Seafever]

First off the salmon farmers need you to believe that feeding the world salmon is the answer and that no other fish can be farmed as an alternative. Actually you could farm freshwater species of other fish in inland enclosures and achieve the same result......which is mass sale of fish to the world, whether the demand is there or not.

Second ...it was just recently that DFO and scientists were assuring us that the reason for fewer killerwhales was the amount of toxins in their system which inhibits their reproductive rate.

Now.....all of a sudden ...they don't get enough to eat. ( That is, they don't get enough SALMON to eat, which just happen to contain all the toxins which are affecting their reproductive system).

More bogus truth from the Bogus Truth Machine.

I have nothing against scientists, but when they issue a paper or announcement, the first thing I want to know is:- who are they working for?...