Sport salmon fishing season ends early

I run a small monitoring program for coho and steelhead on Pudding Creek, which is just outside of Fort Bragg.  For the coho cohort in question (the spawners returning this year), when they were smolts we have a very reliable estimate that 35,000 smolts left the watershed (2 years ago).  Our spawner count at the Pudding Dam, which is also very reliable, was 110 adults.  This is a 0.3 percent return rate, dismal by anyone's standard.

This happened to all the other folks sampling coho up and down the coast in small coastal watersheds - from Scott Ck in Santa Cruz to Freshwater creek in Humboldt.  These fish have absolutely no freshwater links in their life-history to CV Chinook, yet they are undergoing the same population declines.  From my perspective, it's obvious that abnormally low ocean productivity was the culprit.

Shoot, we could see it when we were surfing and diving that year - the water was clear all spring and there was no wind.  Northwest winds in spring in Norcal fuel the upwelling process.  It's the basis of all our fisheries here.

Dave

Excellent info, Dave.  Let's pray for wind!   

What I haven't figured out is why the Columbia River is still projected to have a record year for spring chinook?  Don't they all swim in the same ocean?

Brian

So all of the ocean is equivalent? the arctic is the same as the tropics? news to me.

Dave; You know the real reason for the recent decline of the salmonids:

Admit it;  Because I hope to go diving with you and Yoshi this year and I smell so very bad in a new wetsuit, and Wendy would rather visit her boyfriend instead of tagging Coho and Trout on Pudding Creek.

Also, I have been warned to be careful about nice oriental people.

Inside joke.  Sorry. 

I just think that we as humans might sometimes point fingers way too easily.

If I had my druthers I would like to know where some of the salmon go.

My 1/2 oriental stepson works in GPS tech and I am sincerely curious where

salmonids may roam.

.02

Looks like this upwelling isn't just a Cali thing.

"A hypoxic "dead zone" has formed off the Oregon Coast for the fifth time in five years"

"This year for the first time, the effect of the low-oxygen zone is also being seen in coastal waters off Washington"

Z

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/07/060727090749.htm