Klamath River Fall Chinook Run Lowest On Record; Hopes Fall For Yurok Tribe And Salmon
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Yurok use gillnets. In good years and bad, the cousins do net counts, stopping
by boats, measuring and weighing any fish caught. Today, Chavez and Nick are also volunteering, catching salmon for tribal elders. It’s the only fishing allowed this year. Chavez slows the boat so Nick can pull up a net they set a couple of hours ago. The verdict? “No fish,” Nick tells us, shaking his head.
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“Last year we thought our fishing season was really, really low,” he says. “And this year is a record one — unfortunately on the wrong end.” He says the tribe works with federal agencies every year to estimate the fall run and to decide how many salmon can be caught. So few chinook were expected to return to spawn this year that commercial fishing was shut down to protect them. The Yurok, a tribe of 6,000, were allowed to catch just over 600 salmon.
Those low numbers are the end result of drought, disease and a long history of habitat destruction. Yurok place much of the blame on upstream dams that have blocked salmon from ancient spawning grounds for over a century. After years of debate and struggle, four dams are set to be removed by 2020, says James. “We look forward for those dams to come down to start the process of healing our rivers” — and with it the return of the salmon and other native species, he says.
In the parade, Annelia Hillman commands the megaphone for the Klamath Justice Coalition, which chants “Undam the Klamath! Bring the salmon home!” She says tribes along the Klamath have had to fight logging, gold mining, the dams and now a proposed natural gas pipeline.
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https://ww2.kqed.org/news/2017/10/16/fish-blood-in-their-veins-but-few-salmon-in-their-river/
= new reply since forum marked as read
