Posted on 08/02/2009 9:39:58 PM PDT by TaraP
ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Yukon River smokehouses should be filled this summer with oil-rich strips of king salmon — long used by Alaska Natives as a high-energy food to get through the long Alaska winters. But they're mostly empty.
The kings failed to show up, and not just in the Yukon.
One Alaska river after another has been closed to king fishing this summer because significant numbers of fish failed to return to spawn. The dismally weak return follows weak runs last summer and poor runs in 2007, which also resulted in emergency fishing closures.
"It is going to be a tough winter, no two ways about it," said Leslie Hunter, a 67-year-old store owner and commercial fisherman from the Yup'ik Eskimo village of Marshall in western Alaska.
Federal and state fisheries biologists are looking into the mystery.
King salmon spend years in the Bering Sea before returning as adults to rivers where they were born to spawn and die. Biologists speculate that the mostly likely cause was a shift in Pacific Ocean currents, but food availability, changing river conditions and predator-prey relationships could be affecting the fish.
(Excerpt) Read more at google.com ...
Global cooling?
Fishermen used to get between $5 million and $10 million from the fishery. Last year, it was $1.1 million.
That means instead of making between $20,000 and $30,000 in the 1970s, fishermen are making just a few thousand dollars now, and that in villages where fuel costs $8 a gallon, milk is $15 a gallon and a T-bone steak costs $25, he said.
Bushs’ fault.
The AP never gave a damn about Alaska until now. How convenient that there’s suddenly a bunch of Alaska news now that Palin retired.
I think we are witnessing the birth of a new hoax plaything for the frauds in the “environmental”(bowel)movement:
The Crisis of King Salmon Disappearance.
Should be worth millions in utterly needless economic shackling of local economies...
Obama’s fault. Everything was fine under Bush.
I noticed that as well.....
Well now we know the real reason Gov Palin resigned /S
Where did the Salmon go?
You can’t bonk wild fish forever.
Duh.
< / fish hugger>
Palin’s fault. Inherited from Bush. Obama will appoint a King salmon czar and come up with a comprehensive plan, the likes of which has never before been seen on this planet.
Meanwhile, our country is broke and none of this will matter as soon as Cap & Trade wipes out our ability to buy fuel... for nearly everything.
So change the venue to whale or seal meat for awhile.
We have so many bucks/deer running rampant around here, most end up as road kill that feeds the wolf sanctuary.
I think I am going to put in for my tags this year.
Have to find some hefty dudes to help me in the field/yard to dress and skin that 3pointer buck when he is done chasing doe.
Pollock ?
What’s that used for anyway ?
I wonder if salmon runs on the Russian side are affected as well ?
They are not here on the PNW coast either but man what a great tuna run we are having.
Actual #s in PNW tuna have gone up.
Baffles the Marine Sci folks..per sons attendance to lectures OSU.
Eat more goat/chicken and let the fish do there migratory thing it will work out in the end...the deer are look more like smokehouse recipients IMHO
Kill a polar bear for dinner!!!
Pollock?
Thats racist!
Black Bear actually.
“Black Bear actually.”
I found that strong and greasy.
Besides Polar Bear would be more likely to give PETA members a heart attack!!!!
So, according to the expert biologists, the cause is likely just a change in the currents, but it may be a few other, naturally occurring reasons.Leads me to believe this has happened before.
Clearly, the "journalist" writing this piece is not concerned with investigating further. It appears to be good enough that "Salmon are vanishing"!!
Considering the FACT that "The dismally weak return follows weak runs last summer and poor runs in 2007, which also resulted in emergency fishing closures" - you would think that the experts, given a 2 year head start on investigating the situation, would have a better grasp on the problem.
If I were a "journalist" I would have thought to ask a few more questions related to the changing currents, river conditions, etc., but apparently this writer was satisfied just to report on the vanishing Salmon.
Still no word on the "vanishing birth certificate" either. Go figure.
We had a fair return on the Kenai the first run was a little weak but the second run was pretty good. The river was blown out with flooding for the last 10 days of the second run and it was tough fishing.
No, it’s a salmon rapture.
Yeah thats how PNW albacore tuna tastes to me too.
Peta? Are they not somehow on Glen Becks chalkboard of how it all connects to the social structure of Marxism?
What the media never reports is the ice pack has been advancing farther south the last few years, I only know this from watching The Greatest Catch... or whatever it’s called ~LOL~
“Yeah thats how PNW albacore tuna tastes to me too.”
My uncle discovered the albacore in the northwest in the early 30s when there was a zero season in the south and he took his tuna boat north just prospecting.
Personaly I love barbecued albacore!!
Perhaps my brine/smoking then to the freezer recipe is not up to par.
The boats are in now and soon it will be $1 per pound cleaned.
Just seems to remind me of cat food.
My taste buds/nose scenter may just not like it.
But good for you. If you are near the PNW coast good time to load up.
Some folks come to town just to haul em out by the wheelbarrel full.
Hey airborne dry up all the fed/state grants to the bioligists and we wont have any controversy.
All the years my son has attended the Marine Sci lectures it is all guess whats on the plate or not.
I actually asked him once so whats for dinner salmon. Ya whooda thought I shot bambi who re appears ever year in the yard.
I think he was tramatized as a child when I killed the pigs we raised for chow.
I tell ya the adult kid would live off of ice cream and cheesecake if he had that choice.
Problem is the by catch in Pollach fisherie. They throw away more king salmon as by catch then make it up the river, bad deal. Fishing industry pays off the politicals to keep the game going. NPFC tells locals to eat cake.
>>>Where did the Salmon go?
Try the refrigerated holds of Japanese, Russian, and Norwegian floating fish harvesting factories. Fine-weave nets miles long that scoop up EVERYTHING in each swath.
“Pollock? What’s that used for anyway? I wonder if salmon runs on the Russian side are affected as well?”
One of the uses for pollack is imitation crab meat. The Russian stocks are probably in a sorrier state, hence the need for them, the Japanese, and who knows else to fish our stocks.
The thing with the links is not hard to do. Makes the article look much neater. Jim and John Robinson designed the ‘post article’ page in a way that makes it easy to accomplish this. It’s just a matter of giving it a try. Everybody else seems to manage it.
The act has been amended a number of times and is now known as the Magnussen/Stevens Act after Alaska senator Ted Stevens.
The act also led to the UN Convention of the Law of the Sea, which the US hasn't approved/signed.
Yep, and I’ll be there trying for my share in three more weeks. Keep the beer on ice!
The problem is our stocks range far, far beyond our 200 mile limit.
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