Post by jgaffney on Aug 14, 2008 21:28:02 GMT -5
Tom Steinstra, who writes an outdoors column for the SF Chron, had this to say about the salmon run:
Wait a minute! I thought the decline of the salmon population was due entirely to man and his rape of the watershed. You mean to tell me that it's due more to natural variations in the ocean's currents than to logging in the Eel River basin? Wait until Pacific Lumber hears about this. Wait until David Keller, the Petaluma resident who gets 95% of his water from the Eel and Russian rivers, yet heads Friends of the Eel River, hears about this!
The story of the decline in salmon populations on the Pacific Coast is well documented, but there's a surprise twist this summer. Scientists blamed the fall of salmon stocks primarily on a lack of marine food production, which has also affected the population of some marine birds. This was the result of a change in wind patterns across the ocean that caused poor upwelling and lack of plankton and krill.
But this spring and early summer, powerful winds out of the northwest returned, and with it, upwelling jump-started the marine food chain.
With plenty of food again in the ocean, yet far fewer adult salmon this summer, the fish that are out there are gorging and getting huge.
That is why what is happening now off Canada could presage huge fish in future years along the Bay Area coast. This summer, DFG released more 20.2 million smolts in San Pablo Bay to bypass water diversions and help the fish reach the ocean, and with rich feed conditions, those salmon could grow more than a pound per month. That is why I predict we'll have more than 1 million salmon in the 20 to 25-pound range in the summer of 2010 off the Bay Area coast, with a sprinkling of monsters.
But this spring and early summer, powerful winds out of the northwest returned, and with it, upwelling jump-started the marine food chain.
With plenty of food again in the ocean, yet far fewer adult salmon this summer, the fish that are out there are gorging and getting huge.
That is why what is happening now off Canada could presage huge fish in future years along the Bay Area coast. This summer, DFG released more 20.2 million smolts in San Pablo Bay to bypass water diversions and help the fish reach the ocean, and with rich feed conditions, those salmon could grow more than a pound per month. That is why I predict we'll have more than 1 million salmon in the 20 to 25-pound range in the summer of 2010 off the Bay Area coast, with a sprinkling of monsters.
Wait a minute! I thought the decline of the salmon population was due entirely to man and his rape of the watershed. You mean to tell me that it's due more to natural variations in the ocean's currents than to logging in the Eel River basin? Wait until Pacific Lumber hears about this. Wait until David Keller, the Petaluma resident who gets 95% of his water from the Eel and Russian rivers, yet heads Friends of the Eel River, hears about this!
