Salmon Fishing Ban on Oregon Coast
Why you'll be paying a PREMIUM for wild salmon
When I was in Newport a few weeks ago, I talked with a commercial fisherman who said there hasn't been much commercial fishing lately. In fact, last month, West Coast fisheries managers have voted to ban salmon fishing off the Oregon and Cali coast this year. The Sacramento Chinook Salmon run (which traditionally has been one of the most vibrant runs) has collapsed.
Scientists predict this year's salmon season to be one of the worst in history.
Only about 90,000 adult Chinook returned to the Central Valley last fall - the second lowest number on record and well below the number needed to maintain a healthy fishery. That number is projected to fall to a record low of 58,000 this year. By contrast, 775,000 adults were counted in the Sacramento River and its tributaries as recently as 2002.
Just yesterday I read an article about one possible reason for the decline in salmon returning to the area.
Sewage not good for Salmon- Duh!
A newspaper article yesterday cited a new study theorizing that an overabundance of ammonia in sewage waste water that's pumped into the San Joaquin near Sacramento may be what's to blame for the decline in fish species and interruption in the Chinook salmon's spawning cycle.
Of course the sewage is treated, but it looks like the ammonia levels in the sewage are not monitored like they should be since the area around Sacramento has just grown like crazy, people moving in, people pooping, poop being flushed into the river without the ammonia levels being moderated. Well, the levels of waste water have doubled since 1985.
Little fish eat zoo plankton which eat phytoplankton. If there's too much ammonia in the water due to sewage, phytoplankton can't feed on nitrates. So the people in Sacramento and surrounding areas are gonna have to start looking at paying a higher fee to support a ammonia-monitoring waste water treatment process.
Migrating fall-run Chinook salmon can hit a stretch of the San Joaquin River in Central California with oxygen levels so low, the fish are forced to either wait around until conditions improve or to go elsewhere to spawn, thereby negatively affecting their spawning success. Algae consume much of the oxygen and according to a recently published U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) report, animal wastes or sewage were a major source of nutrients for the algae growth.
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