Where are the Salmon? More than 200,000 salmon should have
shown up in the Columbia river to spawn by now, but only a
few hundred have been seen. The absence of the wild Chinook
salmon is a disturbing environmental mystery. The best case
scenario is that they're being kept away by low water and
high sediment levels due to the drought in the Pacific
Northwest. The worst is that there has been a shortage of
the krill that is essential to their diet, and they have
starved while wintering out at sea. This means we're
going to see only farmed salmon in our grocery stores this
year, although it may be designated as "wild" (Keep reading
and we'll tell you all about that).
For centuries local Indian tribes have depended on the
salmon, but not this year. Chinook salmon enter the Columbia
River from the Pacific Ocean this time every year to return
to the streams where they were hatched and lay their eggs.
Fish ladders, resembling stairs, have actually been built
for them inside the Bonneville Dam, which is located on the
Columbia River, which flows through Portland, Oregon and
Vancouver, Washington. Inside the dam, the fish swim past a
large window, so they can be counted. Government fisheries
inspectors then decide when to start the fishing season and
how long it should last.
Most of the salmon making this year's spring run first went
out to sea, as baby fish, in 2002 or 2003. There have been
no conditions in the last 2 to 3 years that would explain
the die off. The number of salmon in the Willamette River,
which joins the Columbia below Bonneville Dam, are normal
this year. The Bonneville Dam releases a certain amount of
water to help the fish if the water flow is too low, in
order to keep the young salmon out of the hydroelectric
turbines, which kill about 10% of the fish that swim through
them.
So when you go into your local fish store in search of wild
salmon, and see the fillets displayed at the usual
astronomical prices, don't expect to get the real thing. The
New York Times recently reported that salmon are being sold
as "wild" in a number of prestigious New York markets like
Dean & DeLuca and Whole Foods, but they found that they were
virtually all the farmed variety instead?complete with the
PCBs, dyes and other contaminants that purchasers of wild
salmon pay so much extra to avoid. (The salmon purchased by
the Times at Whole Foods was wild-caught, according to the
chain, but still a farmed fish.)
The Coming
Global Superstorm by Whitley Strieber and Art Bell, the
book that inspired the hit movie "The Day After Tomorrow,"
will change the way you think about the true nature of the
weather and climate change. We now have copies available in
their original hardcover?a true collector's item. Don't miss
this important book?your future may depend on it!
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