Alaska salmon, headed out?

"With a sickening thud, another hefty and handsome salmon lands in the waste barrel, headed for the dogs.
More Alaskan salmon caught here end up in the dog pot these days, their orange-pink flesh fouled by disease that scientists have correlated with warmer water in the Yukon River.
The sorting of winners and losers at Moore's riverbank fish camp illustrates what scientists have been predicting will accompany global warming: Cold-temperature barriers are giving way, allowing parasites, bacteria and other disease-spreading organisms to move toward higher latitudes.
"Climate change isn't going to increase infectious diseases but change the disease landscape," said marine ecologist Kevin D. Lafferty, who studies parasites for the U.S. Geological Survey. "And some of these surprises are not going to be pretty."
Mary Ruckelshaus, a federal biologist with the Northwest Fisheries Science Center in Seattle, has been running climate models to peer into the future for Pacific Northwest salmon. Those models predict that salmon will become extinct without aggressive efforts to preserve the clear, cool streams needed for spawning, such as planting trees to shade streams and curtailing the amount of water siphoned off by farmers."It's sort of a time bomb," Ruckelshaus said. "If people don't have a plan for it, it can be disastrous when it hits." Her models didn't factor in the potential for emerging diseases, such as the one that Kocan, her former professor, has been studying."
It's the kind of redistribution of disease that can be expected with climate change, Kocan said: "Everything is getting warmer, and that's how climate change is going to redistribute all kinds of disease. Parasites have their optimum conditions -- upper and lower limits. We'll notice where they show up but not necessarily where they disappear."" LINK

Salmon, headed out, fast.

God how sad.

"The stunning collapse of one of the West Coast's biggest wild salmon runs has prompted even cash-strapped fishermen to call for an unprecedented shutdown of salmon fishing off the coasts of California and Oregon.

But only about 90,000 adult chinook returned to the Central Valley last fall -- the second lowest number on record and well below the number needed to maintain a healthy fishery. That number is projected to fall to a record low of 58,000 this year. By contrast, 775,000 adults were counted in the Sacramento River and its tributaries as recently as 2002.

...Many fishermen and environmentalists believe the main problem lies in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. They say too much water is being diverted to farms and water districts in the San Joaquin Valley and Southern California.
"This stock got off-the-charts bad very suddenly," said Donald McIsaac, the council's executive director. "It's a very, very severe situation." LINK

Mmmm salmon! Oh, no. I guess not.

For the fish? They are gone. This is a terribly sad story- one that's probably not going to get a lot of looks what with the collapsing economy, rising gas prices, increased unemployment, ever more desperate and stupid ideas from politicians for how to fix it all (hey, who wants $300?), Chinese slaughter of monks, and tornadoes destroying a good chunk of Atlanta, for Christ's sake, but it is something. It certainly is something. Good NYT article. Heartbreaking.

"The Chinook salmon that swim upstream to spawn in the fall, the most robust run in the Sacramento River, have disappeared. The almost complete collapse of the richest and most dependable source of Chinook salmon south of Alaska left gloomy fisheries experts struggling for reliable explanations — and coming up dry." link

Jellyfish love global warming. Salmon don't.

The thing about this is, so many papers are all "freak attack', 'bizarre incident', etc etc, but researchers have known for ages that this is one of the results of increasingly warmer and acid oceans- jellyfish are thriving, multiplying, and doing things that we haven't seen before.

"A jellyfish invasion has wiped out Northern Ireland's only salmon farm, killing more than 100,000 fish.

A Northern Salmon spokesman said last week's attack could cost more than £1m.

Billions of small jellyfish, known as Mauve Stingers, flooded into the cages about a mile into the Irish Sea, off Glenarm Bay and Cushendun.

The jellyfish covered an area of up to 10 square miles and a depth of 35 feet. Rescuers tried to reach the cages but the density of fish made it impossible.

Managing director John Russell said he had never seen anything like this in 30 years in the business. " Link to jellyfish story (BBC)

Climate change affecting Scottish salmon, too.

"For more than 150 years, the start of Scotland's salmon fishing season on the river Tay has been celebrated in the middle of January.
But the apparent impact of climate change on spawning patterns has forced conservationists and anglers to postpone this year's official seasonal opening on sections of the waterway for two weeks.
For the first time in decades, salmon fishing in parts of Perthshire has had to be delayed because the fish, which begin breeding in earnest as soon as the first heavy frost of winter starts to bite, have been thrown into confusion by the mild weather."
LINK

Soon there'll be no salmon. I can't face a world without smoked salmon.

Alaska, again.

Shrub is at it again.

"WASHINGTON - President Bush lifted the drilling ban Tuesday for Alaska's Bristol Bay, clearing the way for the Interior Department to open the fish-rich waters to oil and natural gas development.
Environmentalists have warned against drilling in the bay, which is also a major fishing area for salmon, crab and cod."
LINK

No more salmon??? Damn- new planet, stat!

Warming temperatures > melting glaciers > riverbeds rising because of soil erosion from excessive meltwater > salmon can't get through such shallow water > wamer water in shallower rivers mean salmon won't breed > no food for bears, eagles, otters, and Lexacats.

Doom.
LINK

Oh, and there's stuff in the article about the dissapearing lands, like Shishmaref, the melting permafrost, etc etc.