Good Fish News...for a change.

Oregon ocean conditions best for fish in 50 years


by Michael Milstein, The Oregonian
Friday December 19, 2008, 12:16 PM

After several years of poor ocean conditions that left birds starving and fish dwindling, this year brought a healthy influx of cold, nutrient-rich water along the Oregon Coast that likely represent the best year for fish in decades, scientists say.

Surveys along the coast from Newport north to LaPush, Wash., found more juvenile chinook salmon than they've seen in the 11 years the surveys have been done, researchers said.

That suggests that the Northwest could see a salmon boom once those fish mature and migrate back to their home rivers in the next few years.

That would represent a welcome contrast to the last few years.

The key to ocean productivity off the Oregon Coast is upwelling of deep, cold water that is rich in nutrients. The water typically nurtures rich marine ecosystems, but last year and in the few years before the upwelling has happened erratically and hasn't provided the nutrients essential to fish and other coastal life.

Scientists believe that the return to positive conditions may be connected with the Pacific Decadal Oscillation, a climate pattern that shifts between warm and cool cycles in periods of 20 to 30 years. This year, the pattern was cooler than it has been since 1955, said Bill Peterson, a NOAA-Fisheries biologist based in Newport who is also affiliated with Oregon State University's College of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences.

"We usually see cold water conditions for a few months once upwelling begins in late spring and early summer," Peterson said in an OSU press release. "Since April of 2007, though, we've been in a constant 'summer-state' ocean condition, which is something we've never seen in more than 20 years of sampling. And we're not sure why."

The conditions nurture masses of phytoplankton that are rich in fat and provide food for small fish such as anchovies and herring, which themselves become food for salmon and other predators. The word from researchers this year was that seabirds were getting plenty to eat and that it was a good year for ling cod and other rockfish.

Nice.  It's good to hear some good news for a change.

Local salmon commie I talk to said conditions were good off the Cal coast too

Great, the 10 fish that are left will be nice and fat.  Then they'll head up river with no water and die.

hey InSeine

Are you a marine biologist?

Great, the 10 fish that are left will be nice and fat.  Then they'll head up river with no water and die.

Well, it was good news for 3 posts anyhow