The collapse of the West Coast’s salmon fisheries isn’t exactly a secret, though every once in a while, something pops up to remind you of what’s been lost (and what could exist again if the fishery was better protected). In a tributary of the Lower Sacramento River, biologists found a dead salmon that probably weighed 90 pounds:
(California Dept of Fish & Game photo)
Measuring in at 51 inches – 4 1/4 feet – long, the male salmon was likely five to six years old, Killam said. Scientists used the salmon’s girth and length to come up with their estimate of 85 pounds – and that’s dead. The salmon probably weighed about 90 pounds alive when it started its swim from the Pacific Ocean back to Battle Creek.
Of course, one of the reasons this huge fish was able to contribute its monster genetics to Battle Creek was due to the commercial fishing restrictions and closures of the past two years:
Federal and state officials called off a commercial salmon fishery this year off the state’s coast and are allowing nothing but a short sport season in the Sacramento River because of the low runs.“A fish that big would have been caught in the fishery,” Smith said.
Sadly, the fish is simply a remnant of the kind of fish that once swam in the Upper Sacramento on a regular basis, and with habitat and environmental issues rearing up – and commercial overfishing more the norm than the exception in prior decades – we’re unlikely to see its kind anytime soon:
Although monstrous, the salmon found on Battle Creek is part of a meager salmon run on the stream that feeds Coleman National Fish Hatchery. This year’s fall-run has been about 13,000 fish, said Scott Hamelberg, the hatchery’s manager.
Average runs at the hatchery have been between 20,000 and 30,000 fish.
See you on the River, Tom Chandler.
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