Unlimited Salmon / Steelhead News Update...

[Woolly Bugger]

A group of international fisheries scientists is now pointing out the simple, ecological reality of mathematics long ignored by Alaska salmon managers: addition matters as well as subtraction.

With the human-manipulated ecosystem of the North Pacific Ocean once again oscillating wildly, they are warning that fishery management isn't just about the removals of salmon via human harvests; it is also about the additions of billions of the little fish now dumped into the ocean each year by industrial-scale salmon hatcheries in Alaska, Japan and Russia.

"The intentional release can have wider-ranging consequences than previously thought, as the impacts can propagate through a diversity of ecological interactions," they warn in a peer-reviewed paper published by Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS) last month.

"This recognition has sparked a discussion of how the massive introduction of native species alters short-term ecosystem dynamics. Yet, current debates overlook the fact that we have rarely assessed the community-wide impact in the long term."

Evidence to support the theory that dumping billions of hatchery salmon into the Pacific can play havoc with wild ecosystems has been hotly debated for years now, but the researchers reporting in PNAS say they've been able to gather the evidence to document long-term, community-wide consequences by studying masu salmon in Japan.

https://craigmedred.news/2023/03/12/fish-math/

[Woolly Bugger]

Government rules last wild Atlantic salmon in country can coexist with Maine's hydroelectric dams
Wild Atlantic salmon were previously in abundance in the US, but now only return to a few ME rivers

The federal government ruled Monday that the last wild Atlantic salmon in the country can coexist with hydroelectric dams on a Maine river, dealing a blow to environmentalists who have long sought to remove the dams.

The salmon, once abundant in the U.S., now return to only a few Maine rivers. One is the Kennebec River, dammed by Brookfield Renewable Energy Partners. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Monday that the dams are not likely to jeopardize the continued existence of the salmon if conservation measures are taken.

Conservation measures along Brookfield's four Kennebec dams are designed to improve fish passages and will require an investment of more than $100 million by Brookfield, NOAA said. The dam upgrades would allow the salmon to swim up the Kennebec from the Atlantic Ocean to freshwater inland habitats for the first time since the construction of the dams in the 19th century, the agency said.

https://www.foxnews.com/us/government-rules-last-wild-atlantic-salmon-country-coexist-maines-hydroelectric-dams