King salmon vanishing in Alaska

[Demwit]

King salmon vanishing in Alaska, smokehouses empty


Aug 2, 9:22 PM (ET)

By MARY PEMBERTON

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - Yukon River smokehouses should be filled this summer with oil-rich strips of king salmon - long used by Alaska Natives as a high-energy food to get through the long Alaska winters. But they're mostly empty.

The kings failed to show up, and not just in the Yukon.

One Alaska river after another has been closed to king fishing this summer because significant numbers of fish failed to return to spawn. The dismally weak return follows weak runs last summer and poor runs in 2007, which also resulted in emergency fishing closures.

"It is going to be a tough winter, no two ways about it," said Leslie Hunter, a 67-year-old store owner and commercial fisherman from the Yup'ik Eskimo village of Marshall in western Alaska.

Federal and state fisheries biologists are looking into the mystery.

King salmon spend years in the Bering Sea before returning as adults to rivers where they were born to spawn and die. Biologists speculate that the mostly likely cause was a shift in Pacific Ocean currents, but food availability, changing river conditions and predator-prey relationships could be affecting the fish.

People living along the Yukon River think they know what is to blame - pollock fishery. The fishery - the nation's largest - removes about 1 million metric tons of pollock each year from the eastern Bering Sea. Its wholesale value is nearly $1 billion.

King salmon get caught in the huge pollock trawl nets, and the dead kings are counted and most are thrown back into the ocean. Some are donated to the needy.

"We do know for a fact that the pollock fishery is slaughtering wholesale and wiping out the king salmon stocks out there that are coming into all the major tributaries," said Nick Andrew Jr., executive director of the Ohagamuit Traditional Council. "The pollock fishery is taking away our way of living."

Since 2000, the incidental number of king salmon caught has skyrocketed, reaching over 120,000 kings in 2007. A substantial portion of those fish were bound for western Alaska rivers. If those fish had lived, an estimated 78,000 adult fish would have returned to rivers from the Pacific Northwest to Western Alaska.

Efforts to reduce bycatch are not new. In 2006, bycatch rules were adopted allowing the pollock fleet to move from areas where lots of kings were being inadvertently caught, thereby avoiding large-scale fishing closures. Then, 2007 happaned, and it was back to the drawing board.

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20090803/D99R3NK80.html

[Demwit]

And somehow treehuggers and such are referred to as liberals, not as the TRUE conservatives that they are.

How much more conservative can you be than trying to conserve our world for future generations.

[meme]

Bull shit...Alaska is some of the most conservationist people I know and predominantly conservatives....

they live off the land and take care of it..

If you don't live there, you might want to learn more about it...

[Whomever]

Bull shit...Alaska is some of the most conservationist people I know..

they live off the land and take care of it..

If you don't live there, you might want to learn more about it...

Did you even read the post?
Or are you just stupit?

[meme]

Did you even read the post?
Or are you just stupit?

I read his second post, so shut the fuck up asshole

[Whomever]

I read his second post, so shut the fuck up asshole

And that mentioned Alaskans?

You ARE just stupit.

[meme]

And that mentioned Alaskans?

You ARE just stupit.

the friggen thread was about Alaska you stupid twerp..now go to bed I'm sure it's past your bedtime..

[Whomever]

Besides living off the land does not mean you conserve it.

Our pioneer forefathers and formommas lived off the land. The cleared, burned, farmed till they used up the land and then moved on. They killed the game, the buffalo, etc then moved on to deplete somewhere else.

In a sense strip mining can be called living off of the land.

[meme]

Besides living off the land does not mean you conserve it.

Our pioneer forefathers and formommas lived off the land. The cleared, burned, farmed till they used up the land and then moved on. They killed the game, the buffalo, etc then moved on to deplete somewhere else.

In a sense strip mining can be called living off of the land.

where do you live in Alaska? since you know so much about it, you might want to share with us..

[Whomever]

where do you live in Alaska? since you know so much about it, you might want to share with us..

Do I have to live in Alaska to know that living off of the land does not necessarially equate to conserving the land?

Alaska is not alone in people using up natural resources without regard for the future generations.
Nor have I said that Alaskans are not conservationists. Although some are not.

[meme]

Do I have to live in Alaska to know that living off of the land does not necessarially equate to conserving the land?

Alaska is not alone in people using up natural resources without regard for the future generations.
Nor have I said that Alaskans are not conservationists. Although some are not.

well then, if all us evil humans are using up all of our natural resources, why don't all you tree huggers start by killing yourselves, then that would be more for the rest of us that we could pass on to our children...

[uscitizen]

well then, if all us evil humans are using up all of our natural resources, why don't all you tree huggers start by killing yourselves, then that would be more for the rest of us that we could pass on to our children...

typical lugnut logic. Reward the guilty and punish the innocent.

My reply to you is. why can't all you rightwing lugnuts live in the same place so you can just crap in your own messkit and not all of ours that try to do better for future generations.

[meme]

typical lugnut logic. Reward the guilty and punish the innocent.

I think it makes perfect sense..I take you don't, eh
most of do live grouped together, then we don't have to live next to liberal fascist who feel the need to tell others how they should live...