Salmon Are Extremely Important to the Pacific Northwest

Not only are salmon an inherent aspect of Native culture all around the area and Pacific Northwest, but they are important to the surrounding ecosystem. A few of the Native tribes within the areas are a few different branches of the Shoshone tribe, along with the Burns Paiute tribe. These groups of people originating in the area are having a staple part of their culture being taken away with the disappearance of Salmon in the area. In many tribes, it is said that salmon have been gifted to them by the creator, which is an aspect held high in these tribes. Taking away salmon from indigenous people is just as bad as taking holy readings from other religions. Wild Salmon feed “137 different species” in the local areas around rivers (Earth Justice). They have always been important entities to most river ecosystems in the Pacific Northwest due to their very unique lifecycle, swimming upstream to get to their birthplace.  Along with this, salmon runs push “vast amounts of marine nutrients from the ocean to the headwaters of otherwise low productivity rivers,” (Wild Salmon Center).

The Amount of Power Needed Can be Found in Other Sources

Hydropower is becoming more and more outdated by the day. New forms of cleaner power like wind and solar are being used more and more in the pacific northwest. At current rates, we now “have two and one-half times as much new, renewable energy generation up and running in the Pacific Northwest as all four Lower Snake River dams produce in a year,”(Earth Justice). We are currently making more than enough power to replace the dams on this specific river, so it makes no sense to keep them there. These dams are also particularly old, and degrade relatively quickly, meaning they’re going to fall apart anyway and leave behind all of the remains to flow for the river. Not only is this bad for the salmon and the rivers habitat, but it is also damaging to the surrounding economies, as large sums of investments have been made to maintain the dams.

These cleaner energy options will not only leave free flowing rivers, but their materials and required environment don’t involve the rivers or water whats so ever. This would leave the salmon populations to restore themselves and thrive as they once have in their native rivers. A lot of river dams have added salmon ladders to the dams so they ‘don’t affect’ the natural flow of nature, but these have made little difference in the drastic loss of salmon populations because they are just not enough. If we want to save the Salmon populations, it is an all or nothing kind of deal.

The Population of Other Animals Rely on Salmon as Well

Not only are bears and humans primary consumers of salmon in the northwest, but the orcas in Puget Sound enjoy them too as well as depending on them as a food source. Because the Salmon population is declining, now the orcas are too. The orcas main food source has been Chinook salmon for as long as they have been in the area, but now that the salmon population is declining, so is the number of whales and size of their pods. The decline in their food supply has caused them to develop strange patterns observers have never seen before, and now, there are no longer calves in the area, worrying scientists about their future. Along with Salmon being endangered, so are the killer whales. Both of these species have been declining due to the human impact we have had on their lives.

Dams Cause Rising Temperatures in Rivers

Salmon have a good range in temperature of water they can live in, but in recent years the water has been heating more in more. According to the Northwest Fishing News, only “90 percent of Snake River sockeye were dead before they reached Ice Harbor Dam, the first of four dams on the lower Snake River” in 2015 (NW News). This was devastating because everyone had expected the number of returning to be one of the highest in 40 years. The reasoning behind this great decline in salmon returning was due to the temperature increase in the river due to a combination of forces like climate change, and temperature pollution emitted by the dams. Along with the construction and architecture of the dams being harmful to salmon, the way the power in these dams is being created has also been contributing to the drop in the salmon population. Due to the energy being created by the movement of the water through the dam, it has increased the energy in the water coming out of them, thus heating the water gradually. It isn’t a large increase in temperature, but it is significant enough that it could be possibly harming the salmon population. This is also a significant concern for the future, as climate change conditions are becoming worse and worse over time.

Sources:

(Earth Justice)- http://earthjustice.org/features/remove-four-lower-snake-river-dams

(Wild Salmon Center)- https://www.wildsalmoncenter.org/work/why-protect-salmon/

(NW Fishing News)- http://nwfishingnews.com/devistating-report-indicated-only-10-percent-of-snake-river-sockeye-survived-in-2015/

(CBS News)- http://www.cbsnews.com/news/killer-whale-orca-population-declining-in-puget-sound/

(Whale Photo)- http://bio227-4.blogspot.com/2015/03/the-gentle-killer-orcinus-orca-southern.html

(Solar Photo)- https://www.solarpowerauthority.com