Why are Chinook Endangered?
Where Are Chinook Endangered?
Columbia River
Sacremento River
Cruel Climate Change
These Damn Dams!
Chinook salmon face a multitude of threats from both direct and indirect anthropogenic sources.
Click on the threats above to learn more about how they are affecting chinook salmon populations.
The average global temperature has increased by about 1.4° Fahrenheit since 1880. Two-thirds of the warming has occurred since 1975, at a rate of around 0.15-0.20°C per decade (Scott, 2015). This immense change in the past three decades has slowly increased the world's water temperature too. Chinook are very sensitive to water temperature change, they can only survive in water that is between 41-55 ° F. In the last 4 decades we have warmed up 1.5 °F these fish cannot withstand the heat much longer (Oroville Relicensing, 2003).
Dams and water diversions for agriculture, flood control, domestic and hydropower purposes have greatly reduced and eliminated historically accessible habitat and degraded remaining habitat. The major stem of the Columbia River, a home to thousands of salmon has been overrun by an astonishing 14 dams (Endangered Species Coalition, 2017).
Dams on the Columbia River are present to control flood levels of rainfall and create reservoirs for fishing, while the primary purpose in the Central Valley is to transport water for agriculture and reserve water for fields. While the purposes may be different, the effect on the chinook salmon is very much the same. These salmon struggle enough to survive the treacherous marine environment, and the strenuous journey back upriver is littered with predators, and these immense dams make it much more difficult.
“If you are against a dam, you are for a river.” -David Brower
The largest, most constant threat that chinook salmon face, is the threatening shadow of habitat degradation that humans cast upon river systems. We have thought less of these rivers and creeks as an important part of the ecosystem, and more of them as a way to meet our own short-sighted needs. Impassable dams and degraded habitat are present in the Sacramento River and the Columbia River which affects chinook salmon populations greatly. When salmons reach these dams, they cannot go further upstream to spawn and reproduce, therefore they die without carrying on the population. Even if they are able to climb through the dams, they often cause fish to die from the shock of going through the turbines (Vol. 71, no. 602, 2014, pp. 1–15. UC Berkeley). In the Sacramento River, current spawning habitat is restricted to the mainstem and a few tributaries.
Free-flowing rivers are in, and deadbeat dams are out!
Dam removal has proven to be a very successful way to restore salmon populations and keep the river healthy. The largest dam removal in U.S. history took place in 2011 when the Elwha dam was removed. Chinook salmon swam right past the dam only three days after complete demolition. This dam removal restored 70 miles of spawning habitat in the Elwha, an incredible victory for salmon and humans alike.
"In the moment of crisis, the wise build bridges and the foolish build dams." -Nigerian Proverb
Because of the dam, anadromous fish populations had declined by 98% during the past century. However, an incredible turnaround of the ecosystem has been seen on the Elwha. Elk are moving in and walking through the location that used to be the reservoir, and birds have been noted to be plumper, and bearing more young. The fish populations are booming, with more than 4,000 spawning chinook counted above where the location of the former Elwha Dam was after only the first season following removal. The fish populations are the highest in 30 years! (Mapes, 2016).
The Catch with the Hatcheries
Especially during their crucial spawning time, the water must be the perfect temperature in order for the innocent baby chinook to survive to become juveniles and continue the life cycle of the species. In addition to water temperatures rising, water levels are beginning to drop due to climate change. These lowered water levels are treacherous to young chinook who depend on these rivers to reach the ocean and return back to spawn.
With the temperature rising, these salmon are forced to migrate north, where the water can still remain cool in order to survive. Through this, a restricted range develops for the migration patterns of the chinook salmon. This greatly induced habitat loss leads to more competition for resources and less biodiversity in those habitats that are now too warm for the salmon's survival. Losing this species can result in entire food webs collapsing and ecosystems falling apart, due to the lack of the keystone species as the main nutrient recycler.
The remaining accessible habitat for spawning is severely degraded by:
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Elevated water temperatures
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Agricultural and municipal diversions and returns
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Restricted and regulated flows
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Entrainment of migrating fish into unscreened diversions
"Never give up; for even rivers someday wash dams away"- Arthur Golden
Threats to chinook salmon have increased dramatically with the rise of anthropogenic interference. Chinook salmon are vulnerable to many stressors, and it only takes a small change to affect their health and their survival. One of the main threats is habitat distribution blocked access from hydroelectric dams, dikes, levees, culverts, aqueducts and other human-made waterway systems and watersheds. These structures benefit humans through the production of energy, control of water, creating reservoirs, and providing jobs, but all at the cost of the salmon’s survival (Chinook Salmon - Protected).
"Hatchery fish have the same colors, but they always seem muted like bad reproductions of great art."
-Bill Barich
Hatcheries have proven to be very harmful to salmon populations, and are a threat to their health and biodiversity. Hatchery fish are much more likely to get sick and die because of disease fostered in tight living proximity and lack of cleanliness in cages and feeding areas. Their lack of genetic variability in their populations leads to sickness and die-offs being spread much faster. Their tendency to get sick then leads to wild populations contracting these diseases and their population numbers decrease.
Hatchery salmon have also proven to be less resistant to climate change, and the effects brought along with this, whereas the wild salmon are overall more resilient and able to adapt to changes. The main threat that hatchery salmon pose to wild salmon, is outcompeting them for food and space as they dominate spawning grounds. A study conducted also found that hatchery fish did the worst in terms of reproductive success when they were released into the wild. This means that they are not sustainable. It is important that we protect wild populations instead of allowing hatchery fish to outcompete these populations (Berger, 2016).
"When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world."
-John Muir
Watch this video “Blood Water: B.C.’s Dirty Salmon Farming Secret” which shows the gruesome reality of actions taken by artificial hatcheries.
Unemphasized Overfishing
Overfishing and mass fishing has been a major factor in the depletion of fish and their resources. Salmon is a dish enjoyed by a variety of cultures and loved by many, but the demand for salmon is exceeding the amount available for human consumption.
Overfishing has resulted in a 60% reduction in chinook population since the Pacific Salmon Commission began tracking salmon data in 1984. Just like any species depleted of numbers, there are fewer individuals to breed and repopulate. Without action being taken this population will only continue to decrease with time. As a key factor to their food web, depletion can lead to entire food web collapsing if they go extinct (Vol. 71, no. 602, 2014, pp. 1–15. UC Berkeley).
"It's time to give the chinook salmon the oppertunity they deserve."
A lot of the damage and trauma caused by humans, to both the fish and its habitat, is irreversible. Cutting trees down along the spawning points of the salmon causes extreme damage to the survival of the young chinook. Even though the area around the creek depends on nutrients from the salmon, the chinook themselves also rely on the surrounding environment for survival. The chinook depend on trees and bushes to provide shade and help maintain ideal cool water temperature. When trees are cut down, automatically a major source of shade is taken away from the surrounding water sources. Though when a tree is cut down, the roots still temporarily hold the soil in place. However, over the course of around three to four
years, the roots of a dead tree become increasingly worse at preventing soil erosion (Scott, Caren, 2017). Without the roots of the tree to contain and keep the soil in place, the dirt and silt itself may seep into local creeks and rivers and choke out developing eggs. This results in the death of thousands of unborn chinook salmon.
"Everything is connected, when we remove trees from riverbanks, we destroy the lives of the salmon. With this in mind, we must make choices that are conscious of future repercussions."
Image courtesy of Wix
(Pexel, 2016)
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(Pexel, 2011)
(Gibbons, 2017)
(Pexel, 2015)
(Jones, 2014)
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