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Voices of Spencer Creek
The decision to close seven hundred miles of West Coast waters to commercial salmon fishing came as a shock to me in spite of the fact that over the winter I have been reading so much about threatened species and dying fisheries. In January a group of Canadian scientists led by Jennifer Devine reported in Naturethat five species of deepwater fishes, grenadiers, hakes, skates and a spiny eel are being taken, either commercially, or as 'by catch' in the Greenland halibut and redfish fisheries, in such numbers that they will be extinct in three more of their generations, or thirty years.
Deep sea fish species have not been considered for endangered fish listings because so little is known about them, and until recent advances in fishing technology, few were caught. But because deep sea fish grow slowly, mature late and have low reproductive rates, heavy harvesting of these benthic species can lead to population crashes in only a decade. The Ocean Conservancy reports on species in peril in its quarterly journal, Blue Planet. Humanity's destruction of a resource that was once supposed to be the source of limitless protein for mankind is the result of over-harvest and of harvest methods that destroy habitat. Ocean trawling scours the ocean bottom, destroying the structure of the sea floor, the corals and rock formations that supply food and shelter for the youngest and smallest fish.
The destruction of the cod fishery in Europe and America is a horror story, still hard to accept. In the Winter-Spring 2006 issue of Blue Planet, an article by Andrew Myers, " will the class of 2003 save the codScience, 6 January, 2006, of a Caribbean marine reserve where fishing was banned in 1986, showed that all the species in the reserve were thriving, the large predatory Nassau Grouper that the reserve was designed to protect, and also its prey, various parrotfish species that perform the vital function of cleaning algae off the coral.
I hope that making West Coast waters off limits to fishing will help the salmon, but it is not enough. Policy makers must recognize that salmon need pristine breeding habitat too. What is needed for salmon is the creation of inland fresh water reserves free from logging, herbicide runoff and highway pollution.
Copyright ©2006 by Reida Kimmel
Also see The Over-Fishing of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands at The Ocean Conservancy
This article first appeared in the Eugene Natural History Society's Newsletter, Nature Trails of April, 2006.
Reida Kimmel is a nature writer, board member of the Eugene Natural History Society and an organic gardener/small farmer in the rural backwaters we know and love as Fox Hollow, southwest of Eugene, Oregon. Visit more Reida Kimmel articles at West By Northwest.org:
To Spray More or Not to Spray More, That Is the BLM Question by Reida Kimmel
Aerial Pesticide Assault: The Never Ending Story? by Reida Kimmel
Of Forests and Frogs by Reida Kimmel
The Last Wilderness: Can the Whales Be Saved in Time? by Reida Kimmel
Frog Season by Reida Kimmel
Catkins, Mushrooms and Water</aSpring, Birds, Frogs and West Nile Virus by Reida Kimmel
© Copyright 2000-2004 by West By Northwest.org
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