Climate change is cooking salmon in the Pacific Northwest

[Rhiannon12866]

Warmer waters in the Pacific Northwest are killing salmon before they can reproduce.

The Tulalip Indian Reservation sits on the east side of the Puget Sound, about 40 miles north of Seattle, Washington, where the change in seasons is marked by the arrival and departure of salmon. At the heart of the reservation is Tulalip Bay, where salmon return every spring and fall before swimming upstream to spawn.

In tribal folklore, the Tulalip people are descended from salmon. As Cary Williams, who works at the tribe’s cultural center, tells the story, the ancient salmon saw people walking on land and wanted to become human. When they asked the grandfather salmon to give them human form, he granted their wish and told them, “I will take care of you, but you must take care of me.”

But it has become increasingly difficult for the Tulalip people to care for the salmon. Since the 1980s, wild Pacific salmon have faced a sharp decline due to overfishing, habitat loss and pollution, leaving several local populations threatened or endangered. Now, climate change is further imperiling the fish.

Recent summers in the Pacific Northwest have been beset by record heat, and higher water temperatures are killing the adult salmon before they can reproduce. Pacific Salmon are anadromous, meaning they spend their juvenile years in freshwater streams and rivers, before moving on to estuaries, and then, in their adult years, the open ocean. Adults return to the streams where they were born at the end of their lives to spawn. Extreme heat has made this journey particularly treacherous.

Much more: https://www.popsci.com/climate-change-salmon-pacific-northwest

[democratisphere]

1. We are wiping out the food chain and environments in our oceans and seas.

The Mass Extinction continues.

[Rhiannon12866]

2. Extinction is heartbreaking, there's no going back

Threatened species are a national emergency.

[pscot]

6. We're crossing an event horizon

Gone means gone forever; never to be seen again.

[akraven]

3. Yep, which means our chinook won't be upriver this year.

Lots of folks are going to go hungry.

[chwaliszewski]

4. Wy-Kan-Ush-Pum

https://www.critfc.org/salmon-culture/we-are-all-salmon-people/

[BlancheSplanchnik]

5. Overfishing, Habitat loss, pollution.

All uniquely human caused, as we continue to overpopulate our own species yet refuse to talk about that. Instead we’re flailing about for mitigations, but the fact is that trying to “reduce our (carbon) footprint” is of limited value when every other species end up pitted against our continued global expansion.

[Duppers]

7. + 1000000000

Every time I've brought this up people become insanely incensed. "My right" as they assert to have as many polluters as they want. And let's all applaud births.

I've one child born 32 yrs ago and although he has added immeasurable meaning to my life, had I known then...

Unfortunately, all we can do now is to try to mitigate the problem and buy a few years.

Blanche, thank you for articulating this so well. 🙏


❤ to you.

[Canoe52]

8. Reports are for another greatly reduced return this year.