Upstream Salmon and Society in the Pacific Northwest (1996) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:
15 Conclusions and Recommendations: Toward a Sustainable Future for Salmon
15 Conclusions and Recommendations: Toward a Sustainable Future for Salmon
Pages 358-380
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From page 358... ...
Life-history and migration patterns of salmon complicate their management because, for example, fish hatched in the Columbia River are caught as far away as southeastern Alaska and northern British Columbia. Solutions to the salmon problem must recognize the influence of fishing in Alaska and British Columbia, in addition to that in the Pacific Northwest.
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From page 359... ...
GENERAL CONCLUSION Economic development and human population growth without sufficient attention to salmon and their environment have created widespread declines in anadromous salmon abundances in the Pacific Northwest. Although some salmon populations are stable or increasing, the overall pattern is one of decline.
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From page 360... ...
This diversity and the protection and rehabilitation of salmon habitat are the bases of sustained production of anadromous salmon and of the species' evolutionary futures. Because of their homing behavior and the distribution of their populations and their riverine habitats, salmon populations are dependent on diversity in their genetic makeup and population structure and thus are unusually susceptible to local extinctions (Chapter 61.
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From page 361... ...
However, because all human effects on salmon are reductions in the total production that the environment allows, management interventions are more important when the ocean environment reduces natural production than when ocean conditions are more favorable. In a situation of such uncontrollable external variation, it would make sense for fishing to take a f xed and sustainable proportion of the returning spawners rather than a fixed number, as has been common practice, whether ocean conditions are favorable or unfavorable as long as the number of returning spawners exceeds a minimal safe threshold based on demographic and genetic considerations.
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From page 362... ...
Goals and values should emerge in significant part through cooperative management, so that those most directly involved play an instrumental role in determining how the rehabilitation of salmon takes shape in the places they regard as their own. Efforts to rehabilitate salmon should be accompanied by efforts to communicate with stakeholders and the general public in ways that allow for their evaluation of goals and values of the rehabilitation projects and their participation, where appropriate, in cooperative management.
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From page 363... ...
Populations that have unusual genetic adaptations or occupy atypical habitats are of special importance and should be identified and protected. The genetic diversity within existing spawning populations is not replaceable and must be conserved to protect present and future opportunities, including the evolutionary process in salmon.
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From page 364... ...
Chapter 7 outlines examples of projects to rehabilitate streams in the Seattle area. All streams providing spawning or rearing habitat can contribute to the long-term survival of salmon populations in river basins.
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From page 365... ...
Riparian zones associated with streams draining rangeland or agricultural or urban areas often lack any regulatory prescription. Beyond the edge of the riparian zone, it is important that hydrologic processes within watersheds not be altered by human activities to such an extent that patterns of water, sediment, and organic matter inputs to streams degrade aquatic habitat or rip arian functions.
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From page 366... ...
Recommendation. Improve salmon survival rates associated with passing hydropower projects in the Columbia and Snake rivers.
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From page 367... ...
PIT-tag applications should be expanded to enough wild fish and as many hatchery fish as possible to conduct convincing scientific analysis and to separate hatchery from wild fish. The utility of genetic markers that can be safely and quickly detected from fish scales or slivers of fin tissue should be explored.
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From page 368... ...
FISHING AND FISHERY MANAGEMENT For rehabilitation of salmon populations, the aim of fishery managementas for other management efforts should be to achieve long-term sustainability based on maintaining genetic diversity. In the recommendations below, the overall goal is to reduce total fishing mortalities (or to increase escapements)
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From page 369... ...
Fishery management should explicitly recognize the need to conserve and expand genetic diversity via natural increases in population sizes. A holistic approach should be taken that recognizes the interdependence of genetics, habitat, and salmon production, and it must account for the uncertainty in scientific knowledge and the inherent variability of biotic and abiotic environmental factors.
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From page 370... ...
In general, the aim is to assure adequate escapements for depleted populations. To achieve this aim, fishing should take place only where the demic identity of the salmon is known and where catching technology can reduce mortality rates in depleted demes.
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From page 371... ...
The current approach to hatchery use the enhancement of catchable salmon runsentails a large and continuing input of human energy and money. In addition, such use of hatchery production often results in reduction of already depleted wild runs by further reducing natural populations of salmon (see Chapter 12~.
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From page 372... ...
Hatcheries should be dismantled, revised, or reprogrammed if they interfere with a comprehensive rehabilitation strategy designed to rebuild natural populations of anadromous salmon sustainably. Hatcheries should be tested for their ability to rehabilitate populations whose natural regenerative potential is constrained severely by both short- and longterm limitations on rehabilitation of freshwater habitats.
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From page 373... ...
The primary funding agencies for salmon research in the region (at least the Bonneville Power Administration, the Army Corps of Engineers, the National Marine Fisheries Service, the Department of the Interior, and the Department of Agriculture) should carefully consider the advice of the advisory board with respect to identification of critical questions, research funding, monitoring, and other science-based decisions concerning salmon.
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From page 374... ...
For the most part, human institutions that affect salmon have taken only incidental account of salmon biology. Because of the character of the social processes by which institutional arrangements emerge and change, rational analysis is necessary but not sufficient for constructive change.
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From page 375... ...
Our limited understanding of salmon and the ecosystems they inhabit requires adaptive management if rehabilitation is to have a chance. Systematic, experimental learning is faster and less expensive than trialand-error learning, which has proved ineffective within the current institutional arrangements.
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From page 376... ...
The committee proposes that the relevant agencies in the Pacific Northwest, including the National Marine Fisheries Service, agree on a process to permit the formulation of salmon recovery plans in advance of listings under the Endangered Species Act and that the Pacific Northwest states, acting individually and through the Northwest Power Planning Council, provide technical and financial assistance to watershed-level organizations to prepare and implement these preemptive recovery plans.
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From page 377... ...
report and the subbasin planning process of the Northwest Power Planning Council, it is possible to identify some of the geographic outlines of salmon bioregions. One way to harness the Endangered Species Act's potential for disrupting human activities in a biologically constructive fashion is to foster the development of preemptive recovery plans which incorporate binding contractual commitments from funding sources-for adaptive management to rehabilitate specific salmon populations within their bioregions and migration routes.
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From page 378... ...
The activities of the states should be augmented by the Bonneville Power Administration, the Forest Service, and the Bureau of Land Management these agencies are developing adaptive management areas and watershed-level plans under FEMAT. Assistance will also be needed from the Pacific Fisheries Management Council and the International Pacific Salmon Commission to target fishing restrictions to protect specific populations, as well as other relevant agencies that operate beyond state boundaries.
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From page 379... ...
To the degree possible, it is important to identify what groups would bear the major portion of the costs of each method and significant uncertainties in the estimates. (For example, reductions in catch rates would primarily affect fishers and tourists; changes in water use could affect agricultural interests or ratepayers; changes in riparian management could affect forest-products industries or private landowners.)
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From page 380... ...
As long as human populations and economic activities continue to increase, so will the challenge of successfully solving the salmon problem.
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