It is true that some environmental problems are abstract, affecting places far away and species rarely seen. The crash of salmon in California is similar to that. The salmon fishery in California was once abundant fish, famed for huge king salmon in numbers crowded the rivers. The stock of salmon is now teetering at the edge of extinction. Salmon fish form the backbone of California ecosystems, tribal cultures, local economies, a commercial fishing industry and a once-plentiful, wonderful food. Most Californians would mourn the loss of salmon, and rightly so.
This is the second season in a row without any commercial or sport ocean salmon season. This is definitely a sad result of a long-term trend that government and the public have been unable to stop. Salmon have borne the brunt of development in California. With every major dam, they lose habitat. With every ounce of polluted runoff from farm or city, they lose water quality. With every quart pumped from once free-flowing rivers, they lose water.
Experts believe that in-stream pumps trap juveniles against screens; invasive species steal habitat and eat young fish; wildland roads dump sediment into streams; and hatchery management practices are incapable of replacing natural spawning. California fishermen buy 2.4 million fishing licenses each year. The sport-fishing industry supports a total of 43,000 jobs paying $1.3 billion in wages and salaries annually.
It is said that the reason for declining the salmon stock is the work of mining in areas most important to fish. It is told that environmental choices should be based on fact, as well as on fair evaluation of economic realities. DFG has already admitted publicly that the regulatory status quo is harming fish like the coho salmon.
