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Salmon have been around for millions of years
The good ol’ days of salmon fishing 100 years ago.
Steelhead male Sockeye male
Sockeye female
Pink male
Coho male
Coho female
Chum male Chinook male
Cutthroat Salmon Pink female
Chum female Chinook female
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.Dams2.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.
•Lake Ozette Sockeye•Bull Trout
•Steelhead•Bull Trout
•Steelhead•Sockeye (endangered)•Spring/Summer Chinook•Fall Chinook•Bull Trout
•Chinook•Chum•Steelhead•Bull Trout
•Chinook•Summer Chum•Bull Trout
•Spring Chinook (endangered)•Steelhead (endangered)•Bull Trout
•Bull Trout
Current Salmonid ESA Listings
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 RecoveryJoint Natural
Resources Cabinet
Department of AgricultureParks & Recreation
Commission
Puget Sound Water Quality Action Team
Northwest Power Planning Council
Interagency Committee for Outdoor Recreation
Department of Transportation
Governor's Office
Department of Ecology
Tribes
Department of Health
Department of Fish & Wildlife
Conservation Commission
Department of Community, Trade &
Economic Development
SRF Board
Department of Natural Resources
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
· WDFW · Tribe · USFWS
Washington State Hatchery System
Annual WA Statewide Hatchery ProductionWDFW 200-250 million fish
Tribes 46 million fish USFWS 38 million fish
WA Statewide Hatchery FacilitiesWDFW 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 SalmonShould 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 POST-INTELLIGENCER 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/cohopsm.cfm
Seattle's stormwater-polluted streams are no chum to coho salmonIt 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 StateMore funding for highway retrofits, closer oversight over new projectsSEATTLE, WASHINGTON Jan 26, 2010State 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 pesticidesJudge 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
Life cycle
A FARMED SALMON LIFECYCLE IS VERY SHORT
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.
