Salmon have been around for
millions of years
The good ol’ days of salmon fishing
100 years ago.
Steelhead male
Sockeye male
Cutthroat Salmon
Sockeye female
Pink female
Chum male
Chinook male
Chum female
Chinook female
Coho male
Coho female
Pink male
Anadromous Fish
• Salmon are anadromous fish – borne in freshwater,
as adults they live in the salty oceans but return to
reproduce in fresh water.
• Some salmon (sockeye and chinooks) travel up to
1,000 miles (1,600 km) upstream in order to spawn.
Sockeye salmon (or Red salmon)
normally live 4-5 years. And grow
to 4 to 7 pounds, or more.
Sockeye come from river systems
with freshwater lakes (like Lake
Washington) as part of the
system.
For Example:
The Columbia River near Hood River, OR
• Picture of falls where Native Americans used to fish
for salmon before the Bonneville Dam was built.
• This sight is now 160 ft below water.
The Bonneville Dam Today
The Decline of the Northwest
Salmon
Factors Causing
Salmon Decline:
1. Dams
2. Logging
3. Agricultural
runoff
4. Increased
population
growth
5. Over fishing
State of Salmon in WA
Watersheds
In 1991, the federal government
listed the first Pacific Northwest
wild salmon as near extinction
under the Endangered Species Act.
Now a maze of different federal
agencies are involved in salmon
regulations.
Current Salmonid ESA Listings
•Chinook
•Summer Chum
•Bull Trout
•Spring Chinook (endangered)
•Steelhead (endangered)
•Bull Trout
•Bull Trout
•Lake Ozette Sockeye
•Bull Trout
•Chinook
•Chum
•Steelhead
•Bull Trout
•Steelhead
•Bull Trout
•Steelhead
•Sockeye (endangered)
•Spring/Summer Chinook
•Fall Chinook
•Bull Trout
3/30/00 Slide 3
Federal Agencies Involved
• Department of Agriculture
• Natural Resource Conservation Service
• Forest Service
• Department of Commerce
• National Marine Fisheries Service
• Department of Interior
• Fish & Wildlife Service
• Bureau of Reclamation
• Environmental Protection Agency
• State Department
• Council on Environmental Quality
3/30/00 Slide 12
By 1999, wild salmon had
disappeared from about 40
percent of their historic
breeding ranges in Washington,
Oregon, Idaho, and California.
In Washington, the numbers
dwindled so much that salmon
are threatened or endangered in
nearly 3/4 of the state.
State Agencies Involved in Salmon
Recovery
Joint Natural
Resources Cabinet
Department of Agriculture
Governor's Office
Parks & Recreation
Commission
Northwest Power
Planning Council
Department of Ecology
Department of
Community, Trade &
Economic Development
Conservation
Commission
Tribes
Puget Sound Water
Quality Action Team
Department of Health
Department of
Transportation
SRF Board
Department of Fish &
Wildlife
Department of
Natural Resources
Interagency Committee
for Outdoor Recreation
3/30/00 Slide 15
Sockeye and chinooks are the most hardy of
the Pacific salmon family, traveling as far as
1,000 miles upstream to spawn. Chums, coho
and pinks spawn closer to the sea.
Hatching in fresh water streams, after up to 2 years migrate to
the ocean, where most of their growth occurs and after up to
5 years return to their native streams to spawn.
Salmon
lifecycle:
fresh,
brackish, and
salt water
Digging a Redd (a gravel
nest in a streambed)
With her tail the female digs a nest, or redd, in the
gravel, a cavity up to 18 inches deep.
A riffle is preferred, where the fast-running water
will provide a lot of oxygen for up to 8000 eggs.
Clean, cold water and
small to medium sized
gravel are required for
good redds
male fertilizes them by covering them with a
milky substance known as milt.
Most salmon die shortly
after spawning
.
After fertilization, the female
covers the eggs with gravel, and
remains on the redd until death
several days later.
Some
salmon
have eggs
Removed
for
hatchery
use
Washington State Hatchery System
Washington State Hatchery System
·
·
·
WDFW
Tribe
USFWS
Annual WA Statewide Hatchery Production
WDFW
200-250 million fish
Tribes
46 million fish
USFWS
38 million fish
WA Statewide Hatchery Facilities
WDFW
90 facilities
250 cooperative projects
40 Regional Fisheries
Enhancement Group projects
Tribes
35 facilities
USFWS
12 facilities
Removing
sperm from a
male in a
hatchery
Salmon are born in stream gravel beds 10 to 700 miles
from the sea.
Laid in the fall, the eggs incubate over the winter,
frequently under several feet of snow and ice.
Hatched Alevins
Yolk sac
Hatched Alevins
In the late winter, the eggs hatch into alevins,
with bright orange yolk sacs (a completely
balanced diet of protein, carbohydrates,
vitamins and minerals).
They grow rapidly under the gravel for three
to four months.
Good flow of pure water is critically
important.
Salmon eggs require clean
gravels for development
Newly Emerged Fry
Alevins lose their sacs, and emerge from the
gravel as fry in May and June.
About an inch (2.5 cm) long, they are free
swimming, and are easy prey for larger fish.
Sockeye fry move into a lake for a year,
although pink and chum fry swim directly
to the sea.
Fingerlings
Freezer
tagging
young
fingerlings
at a
hatchery
Tagging a male
Releasing young salmon
from a hatchery
Releasing salmon from a truck
Young salmon become Smolts
when they enter brackish water
IN THE ESTUARIES AND OCEAN
• When the fry or fingerlings move onto estuaries they begin
the process of to salt water and become SMOLTS.
• Brackish waters are a mix of fresh and salt water.
• SMOLTS must watch out for birds and larger fish, a new
predator for the growing fish.
• The time spent in estuaries depends on the species of salmon,
but can vary from weeks to months.
• The larger they are before they enter the ocean, the more
likely they survive to return as adults (escape predators).
• In the ocean for 1-5 years, they become prey to killer whales,
sea lions, dolphins, and bigger fish.
Block seine for capturing juvenile Chinook
salmon in the estuarine emergent marsh, Skagit
River, Washington State.
Estuary Utilization by Juvenile
Chinook Salmon
Tidal channels in the Skagit River
estuarine emergent marsh provide
food and habitat for juvenile Chinook
salmon.
At least 70% of all fish rearing in the
estuary lived there for a month or longer.
WHY IS THE SALMON POPULATION DECLINING ?
1. Construction of dams - No
access to their spawning sites.
2. Logging sediments - damages
stream spawning areas.
3. Vegetation clearing along
streamsides - heats waters.
4. Debris removal in rivers –
winter fingerling habitat lost.
5. Contaminated water – kills
fish.
6. Over fishing – reduces
spawning numbers
SALMON AND HYDROPOWER DAMS
Dams and Salmon
Should Dams be Removed?
• Dams completely block a salmon’s access to their
habitat, and cannot reach their spawning sites.
• There is less reproduction.
• Some salmon are trapped in fish ladders.
• The warm water in the reservoir is a perfect
breeding ground for parasites which infect salmon.
• Predators gather near the fish ladders.
• Salmon used to just swim up
river to spawning sites
• Now they have to find ways
around dams
• Many adults die of
exhaustion before reaching
spawning sites
• Sea lions have figured out that salmon are easy
targets at the bases of dams
• Studies show that sea lions eat about 5% of the wild
salmon runs
Sealice effects wild + farmed salmon
• Lepeophtheirus salmonis
• Small wild salmon are threatened the most due to it only
taking 1-2 lice to kill and only 8 to kill a larger fish.
• 142 pink Salmon populations are threatened by sealice.
Breeching Dams ?
There are many dams located on
the Columbia + Snake Rivers in
Washington State.
Conservationists and fishermen
would like to remove some of
these dams.
The Government insists that we
can restore the salmon by
overhauling hatcheries, limiting
harvest, restoring their habitat
and improving river flow.
SELECTIVE WATER WITHDRAWAL TOWER EXPERIMENT
on the Round Butte Dam, Deschutes River, OR at about $110 million
http://www.deschutespassage.com/
deschutes-passage-overview.html
Round Butte Dam Fish Project History
• A 273-foot underwater tower to collect fish above
Round Butte Dam in Lake Billy Chinook.
• The fish are collected and transported downstream.
• In 1964 the dam was built with a fish passage
system—a gondola/tramway for the upstream
journey and an intake/collection system for the
downstream migration.
• But unforeseen changes in currents and temperatures
made it impossible for the fish to find their way
downstream. Eventually a fish hatchery was built
below Round Butte Dam instead.
SEATTLE POSTINTELLIGENCER Thursday,
February 6, 2003
Our Troubled Sound: Spawning
coho are dying early in
restored creeks
City officials have forked out millions of
dollars and volunteers have donated countless
hours to lovingly restore Seattle-area creeks.
http://www.nwfsc.noaa.gov/research/divisions/ec/ecotox/movies/co
hopsm.cfm
Seattle's stormwater-polluted
streams are no chum to coho
salmon
It was standing room only at the REI "Mother Ship" near
downtown last night as two of the nation's leading lights on the
science of stormwater and how it kills fish held forth.
Non-point Source Pollution
The culprit appears to be the
stormwater gurgling off streets,
parking lots and roofs, carrying
with it oil, grease, pesticides
and other pollutants, say federal
scientists.
Surface water pours into the creek from this plastic pipe.
(February 06, 2003) Credit: Scott Eklund/Seattle PI
Highway runoff typically carries
heavy loads of contaminants
including dissolved metals,
combustion byproducts,
pesticides, and nutrients.
Stormwater runoff from cities,
highways, roads and developed
areas is the most significant
source of pollution threatening
the Sound and other waterways.
Deal Announced to Cut Stormwater Pollution in
Washington State
More funding for highway retrofits, closer oversight over
new projects
SEATTLE, WASHINGTON Jan 26, 2010
State officials and conservation advocates agreed to a plan expected to
reduce stormwater pollution threatening Puget Sound and the rivers,
streams, estuaries, and bays in western Washington.
The agreement settles a legal suit brought by Puget
Soundkeeper Alliance against the Washington State Department
of Transportation (WSDOT), and the Washington Department of
Ecology which challenged the state’s highway stormwater permit.
Studies were
done at
Longfellow
Creek in
West Seattle
When hit by a flush of it, coho
are immediately disoriented.
“They roll to their sides. Some
do what scientists dubbed ‘the
Jesus walk,’ skittering across
the top of the water in a final,
desperate burst of energy.”
All this happens within hours when the
salmon enter local creeks -- killing 88
percent of the fish in the study.
An unusually large number of
females were still full of eggs;
males were full of sperm.
"When you find a carcass like
that, obviously they haven't
spawned, and that's a real
concern," he said.
At the rural stream, just one of the 115
female coho died before spawning.
But at Longfellow, 56 female coho perished in
a matter of hours, only 8 survived to spawn.
The Longfellow fish were tested for disease,
but nothing was found that would trigger the
speedy deaths.
The situation is reminiscent of what would
happen if there were a toxic chemical spill.
Every day, residents contribute to stormwater
pollution: dousing yards with chemicals to
kill bugs; cars leaking antifreeze and oil;
spraying with herbicides to kill moss.
When it rains, pollutants wash off streets and
yards into storm drains, many of which flow
directly into creeks.
When it’s a dry period, this allows pollutants
to build up on the ground. When it finally
rains, scientists suspect that the arriving coho
are hit by a lethal dose.
Limits imposed on pesticides
Judge orders chemical-free buffers near streams to
protect salmon Jan 04, By LISA STIFFLE, SEATTLE P-I
The use of pesticides near salmon-bearing rivers and
streams in the Northwest was banned yesterday by a
federal judge, who also required retail stores in urban
areas to post warnings about the most commonly used
and potentially dangerous chemicals.
The ruling, which covers Washington, Oregon and
California, was hailed by environmentalists, who cited
research showing that pesticides are washing into
streams and that even low levels can harm protected
salmon runs.
Of the 54 pesticides the EPA is reviewing, 34
compounds have been screened. Half "possibly or
likely harm" one or more of the salmon species.
•Carbaryl -- insecticide in products including
Adios, Bugmaster, Septene and Sevin; moderately
toxic to aquatic life.
•2,4-D -- herbicide in Barrage, Lawn-Keep, Savage,
Salvo and Weed & Feed, Weedone; used on
broadleaf weeds; can be highly toxic to fish
•Diazinon -- insecticide in Gardentox, Knox Out
and Spectracide; kills cockroaches, ants and fleas;
highly toxic to fish
Transgenic Salmon
Vs. Wild Salmon
A FARMED SALMON LIFECYCLE IS VERY SHORT
Life cycle
The Cages
• Open net cages allow
water flow freely.
• Cages are made up of
two nets.
• Inner net wraps around
the cage holding the
salmon.
• Outer net keeps
predators away from the
salmon.
Transgenic organisms
• What is the issue?
• Transgenic organisms have genes inserted
into their genetic make-up that may come
from the same organism (but are modified
to enhance a trait), or be from any another,
unrelated, organism.
• Salmon are currently being studied for
transgenic enhancement of certain
production traits, such as growth rate or
cold tolerance.
Transgenic Chinook
salmon from the New
Zealand King Salmon
Company.
The top 3 fish are
transgenics: 11 months
old with an average
weight of 850g,
The bottom fish is a
non-transgenic sibling
of the same age,
weighing 280g
Courtesy of Seumas Walker
Impacts on The Environment
• Farmed fish can escape their
open net cages and compete
with wild salmon for food
and habitat.
• Transfer diseases and other
pathogens to wild salmon.
• Crowded open net pens
create sea lice and transfer
from adult salmon to wild
juvenile salmon swimming
near by salmon farms.
• Escaped GMO fish can
breed with wild stock
mixing genes.