Puget Sound salmon continue to decline

[pscot]

Officials from the Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife are expecting low returns of silver/coho salmon.

Salmon fisheries will be constrained in several areas this year because of the low projections of wild and hatchery coho, said WDFW salmon fisheries policy lead John Long, in a news release. The forecast of about 256,000 Puget Sound coho, for example, is about one-third the size of the run predicted in 2015.

“Unfavorable ocean conditions led to fewer coho salmon returning last year than we anticipated,” Long said. “We expect to see another down year for coho in 2016 and will likely have to restrict fishing for salmon in a variety of locations to protect wild coho stocks.”

The 2016 return of chinook (king) salmon is also expected to be lower in Puget Sound with about 165,000 fish returning, most of them hatchery fish.

http://www.southwhidbeyrecord.com/news/372157121.html?utm_source=hootsuite&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=socialmedia

[In_The_Wind]

1. Yesterday on DU I learned ~ Salmon Full of Cocaine and Antidepressants. IMO: That's a problem.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10027689931

[HassleCat]

2. Ocean conditions are tricky.

Salmon are mysterious when it comes to the ocean. We have a lot of information about them when the spawn in the river, emerge from the eggs, grow up in the river, and finally head out to sea. But we can't follow them round in the ocean, so we're not sure here they go and what they do. We know changes in ocean conditions can help them or hurt them, but it's difficult to predict because they don't come back to the river until they spend three year at sea. In the old days, it didn't matter, because there were millions and millions of fish, even in a bad year, and only a million or so people to eat them.