Hatch-22 : The Problem with The Pacific Salmon Resurgence

Here is a stat that will get you attention:

In 1970, hatcheries released 500 million young salmon. By 2008, that figure had jumped to 5 billion.

Environmental journalist Bruce Barcott reports on how hatchery salmon are crowding out their wild counterparts. 

The number of salmon in the Pacific Ocean is twice what it was 50 years ago. But there is a downside to this bounty, as growing numbers of hatchery-produced salmon are flooding the Pacific and making it hard for threatened wild salmon species to find enough food to survive.

LINK (Via: Yale Environment 360)

Save Our Wild Salmon documents Obama’s ghoulish salmon plan

October 29th, 2010 - A broad coalition of salmon advocates, along with the State of Oregon and the Nez Perce Tribe, have fired another shot across the bow in the long-running battle with the federal government and its woefully inadequate and illegal efforts to protect an endangered Northwest icon the wild salmon and steelhead of the Columbia and Snake Rivers.

The coalition filed a “motion for summary judgment” asking Judge James Redden to reject President Obama’s Salmon Plan.

“We’d like to pretend this plan is just a ‘trick’ and the ‘treat’ is still to come,” said Michael Garrity of American Rivers. “But we can’t. We’ve been here too many times before. This administration has got to stop trying to put a pretty costume on an ugly plan and start following the law and science. We’re dealing with people’s livelihoods and keystone species on the brink of extinction.”

Stay tuned for more on this story as it emerges next week.
And have a Happy Halloween!

- Jb

Joseph Bogaard

Save Our Wild Salmon

Read the press release on the SOS website.

Listen to the story - “Papers Shuffled in Federal Salmon Plan Lawsuit”

The Coolest Picture of Sockeye You're Going to See All Day

Taken by Chris Cheadle for BBC Earth.

See it full size.

Bacteria near salmon pens becoming resistant to antibiotics

Bacteria around open net pen salmon farms are developing a resistance to antibiotics, a two-year study in B.C.’s Broughton Archipelago has found.

“They are not actually resistant, but, if we do these special tests, we can see the (tolerance for antibiotics) is higher than you would expect it to be,” said Dr. Michael Kelly, who headed the research.

LINK (Via: The Vancouver Sun)

Frankenfish Debate Continues

The FDA has finally started hearings on whether to approve Aqua Bounty Technologies genetically modified salmon for human consumption. After two days of hearings, the 11-member FDA panel reached a surprising conclusion: that they do not yet have sufficient data to determine that a genetic modification that enables salmon to grow twice as quickly is safe for the affected fish or for consumers.

LINK

In addition, the FDA held a public hearing yesterday on whether the salmon should be labeled as genetically modified.

Salmon Film Teaser

Follow the journey of the critically endangered Snake River salmon from the coast of Alaska to Idaho's Sawtooth Valley. These fish migrate farther inland and higher in elevation than any other fish on Earth, along the way touching the lives of everyone and everything in the ecosystem.

(Via:Way Upstream)