So you might remember in 2006 the big news was that the salmon population was down along the Pacific coast. The big topic was whether the salmon fishing season was going to be shortened at all. They ended up with a compromise that pleased nobody (except perhaps the northern fishermen -- they weren't affected as the discussion didn't even begin until their season was almost over): a barely shortened season and no per-day catch adjustments. We're mostly talking about Chinook here -- the glorious red-fleshed fish you make lox and salmon burgers and filets out of.
by the way, most of the links are just articles with information about salmon and they are randomly districuted through the post
The reason that the topic came up at all was a crisis. Water draws from the Klamath River had increased to the point that the river was too shallow for the fish. Not just because there were places that were tough to swim in, but because the whole river had become too warm and was incubating diseases that were wiping out the returning salmon.
Before the dams and diversions, the Klamath had one of the largest salmon spawns anywhere. Afterwards, it was the Sacramento River Delta populations that carried the baton for the California fishery. It's all one in the fishery: the fish go home to spawn to where they hatched, but they all swim in the same areas in the ocean, all mixed up. So the idea was whether to coddle all the fish for a bit in order to save the Klamath fishery. They decided not to.
This year the Delta Chinook population is down 88% from last year. Eighty-eight percent. Not down to eighty-eight percent of, no, it's down eighty-eight percent. From an already lowered population. (If you follow the newswire link to the 2006 article, you'll find a claim that the salmon population was generally quite healthy at the time: this is misleading -- the numbers of fish had already dropped significantly: notice that the spokesthing was talking about the catch being the highest in 50 years)
I don't know what they're going to suggest. But I have a suggestion: let's have a moratorium on salmon fishing, a nice long one, and hire the fihery workers to do environmental monitoring and cleanup. They already know a lot about the ocean, and they already have a feeling for fish. So we should just pay them decent wages to help build their stocks back up.
Meanwhile, there are Chinook invading Argentinian rivers, eating up all the fish and threatening the penguins. They are most likely escapees from Chilean fish farms.
On another front, the last of the great post-war cartoonists (that I know of) has died. He's not as well known as Walt Kelley, but Gus Arriola's strip "Gordo," while completely different, was "Pogo's" equal in every way.
(the first Walt Kelley link contains a claim that the quote "We have met the enemy and he is us" was first used by Walt Kelley in 1970, but I know it is in a piece about McCarthyism from my childhood -- maybe not the exact words, but close enough as makes no difference)
by the way, most of the links are just articles with information about salmon and they are randomly districuted through the post
The reason that the topic came up at all was a crisis. Water draws from the Klamath River had increased to the point that the river was too shallow for the fish. Not just because there were places that were tough to swim in, but because the whole river had become too warm and was incubating diseases that were wiping out the returning salmon.
Before the dams and diversions, the Klamath had one of the largest salmon spawns anywhere. Afterwards, it was the Sacramento River Delta populations that carried the baton for the California fishery. It's all one in the fishery: the fish go home to spawn to where they hatched, but they all swim in the same areas in the ocean, all mixed up. So the idea was whether to coddle all the fish for a bit in order to save the Klamath fishery. They decided not to.
This year the Delta Chinook population is down 88% from last year. Eighty-eight percent. Not down to eighty-eight percent of, no, it's down eighty-eight percent. From an already lowered population. (If you follow the newswire link to the 2006 article, you'll find a claim that the salmon population was generally quite healthy at the time: this is misleading -- the numbers of fish had already dropped significantly: notice that the spokesthing was talking about the catch being the highest in 50 years)
I don't know what they're going to suggest. But I have a suggestion: let's have a moratorium on salmon fishing, a nice long one, and hire the fihery workers to do environmental monitoring and cleanup. They already know a lot about the ocean, and they already have a feeling for fish. So we should just pay them decent wages to help build their stocks back up.
Meanwhile, there are Chinook invading Argentinian rivers, eating up all the fish and threatening the penguins. They are most likely escapees from Chilean fish farms.
On another front, the last of the great post-war cartoonists (that I know of) has died. He's not as well known as Walt Kelley, but Gus Arriola's strip "Gordo," while completely different, was "Pogo's" equal in every way.
(the first Walt Kelley link contains a claim that the quote "We have met the enemy and he is us" was first used by Walt Kelley in 1970, but I know it is in a piece about McCarthyism from my childhood -- maybe not the exact words, but close enough as makes no difference)
Tags: