Salmon Depletion
In the 1950’s the salmon population in Idaho had numbers over one hundred thousand. Ever since then, despite the efforts of hatcheries,the population of salmon has dropped drastically. Even though at one point wild salmon thrived in their natural habitat, they were at one point even put on the endangered species list to try and bring back their numbers. Many factors may have played in this rapid decline of fish, some may include over harvesting, habitat loss, and the increase of hydropower dams.
On a salmon's route back to the ocean, there are over eight major hydro powered dams on the snake river itself, not including all the smaller dams used for irrigation. In a National Wildlife article in 2006 it Ken Olsen wrote “Salmon numbers …show more content…
Their course does not start anywhere close to their final destination. Most all salmon have to travel thousands of miles. Most of them begin in the pacific ocean and that's where the problems begin. All along their journey they face fishermen trying to see if they can capture this stunning fish, who's a hot commodity in the fishing industry. “Thirty years ago, there were several thousand salmon boats in California. More recently, as the fish became scarce, only a few hundred worked the coast. Then salmon populations crashed, and this year for the first time U.S. officials canceled all ocean salmon fishing off California and most of Oregon”(Tucker). The overfishing and decline of salmon caused that fishing in California had to be controlled immensely. If the fish got past the fishing boats, they still had to make it up the Snake and its tributaries, and past all the fisherman waiting for them there. Over the past several years fish hatcheries have not been able to catch up to the loss of fish through commercial and recreational
In the 1950’s the salmon population in Idaho had numbers over one hundred thousand. Ever since then, despite the efforts of hatcheries,the population of salmon has dropped drastically. Even though at one point wild salmon thrived in their natural habitat, they were at one point even put on the endangered species list to try and bring back their numbers. Many factors may have played in this rapid decline of fish, some may include over harvesting, habitat loss, and the increase of hydropower dams.
On a salmon's route back to the ocean, there are over eight major hydro powered dams on the snake river itself, not including all the smaller dams used for irrigation. In a National Wildlife article in 2006 it Ken Olsen wrote “Salmon numbers …show more content…
Their course does not start anywhere close to their final destination. Most all salmon have to travel thousands of miles. Most of them begin in the pacific ocean and that's where the problems begin. All along their journey they face fishermen trying to see if they can capture this stunning fish, who's a hot commodity in the fishing industry. “Thirty years ago, there were several thousand salmon boats in California. More recently, as the fish became scarce, only a few hundred worked the coast. Then salmon populations crashed, and this year for the first time U.S. officials canceled all ocean salmon fishing off California and most of Oregon”(Tucker). The overfishing and decline of salmon caused that fishing in California had to be controlled immensely. If the fish got past the fishing boats, they still had to make it up the Snake and its tributaries, and past all the fisherman waiting for them there. Over the past several years fish hatcheries have not been able to catch up to the loss of fish through commercial and recreational