THE
CONSERVATION ANGLER STRATEGY
There are other capable organizations that engage in habitat restoration – we do not. Instead, we’re consumed by the greatest threat to the fish and fisheries we love: Climate Change.
The Four H's That Threaten
Recovery of Wild Steelhead and Salmon
Recovery of Wild Steelhead and Salmon
Wild steelhead and salmon are in crisis, and their survival and future depend on bold, coordinated action across four critical areas:
Habitat, Hatcheries, Harvest, and Hydropower.
Habitat, Hatcheries, Harvest, and Hydropower.
Habitat
Healthy rivers and streams are the backbone of salmon survival, but more than a century of development has adversely impacted waterways in a myriad of ways. We cannot allow our best remaining watersheds to suffer the same fate.
Hatcheries
While hatcheries can stave off extinction and boost fisheries, billions of hatchery fish are released into the Pacific Ocean each year. The sheer number of hatchery fish is staggering and they have reduced the productivity and diversity of wild fish in the ocean and freshwater. Reform is essential to decrease competition, preserve genetic diversity and prioritize the resilience of wild salmon.
Harvest
Poorly managed fisheries that focus on today at the expense of tomorrow have taken a heavy toll on struggling salmon runs. Especially open-ocean mixed stock fisheries that have hammered the fish and our chances at recovering them. Sustainable, science-based harvest management and stronger protections for wild stocks are critical to rebuilding abundance and life history diversity.
Hydropower
Dams block migration, alter habitat, and kill fish. To improve the odds of recovery, we need to improve fish passage and remove outdated dams to restore migratory pathways and allow salmon to access their former habitats. Dam removal projects in the Elwha and Klamath Rivers, for example, offer real hope for fish today and tomorrow and the people that rely on them.
There is a fifth H: Heat
Although political rhetoric may downplay Climate Change, the science clearly says increased heat will overwhelm ALL other factors unless we allow wild steelhead and salmon to express the traits and diversity they need to adapt and keep pace. In this vein, the clock is beyond ticking.
By 2080, models suggest the climate of Seattle will be like that of Fresno if everything remains the same.
In the worst case, it could be more similar to Houston. Even if those models are wrong, the threat is real and great.
By 2080, models suggest the climate of Seattle will be like that of Fresno if everything remains the same.
In the worst case, it could be more similar to Houston. Even if those models are wrong, the threat is real and great.
How Warm Will My City Be?
The University of Maryland's Center for Environmental Science has a tool that allows you to simulate climate change across the globe.
The Big Three Threats of Climate Change
Our work addresses the greatest barriers to persistence and adaptability of wild steelhead and salmon.
- Unsustainable and Outdated Fishery PracticesThese practices significantly reduce the size of Chinook salmon, which need to reach an old age and large size to persist. Commercial mixed stock fisheries in the ocean will never allow those salmon to reach critical size and adapt if they continue eliminating older fish. Those fish are also critical to providing nutrients that juvenile steelhead and other fishes need to grow before smolting.
- Overreliance on HatcheriesOverreliance threatens the diversity of steelhead and the size of Chinook salmon. Note that we say overreliance. In some situations, hatcheries make sense. But steelhead are not a species that relies on abundance; their calling card is diversity. We know hatcheries greatly reduce diversity in life histories, spatial structure, and run timing. Steelhead will never recover if they are forced to live with millions of domesticated clones that compete for food and space and impair their diversity. Hatchery Chinook mature at younger ages and smaller sizes than wild Chinook; see comments above about why Chinook size is important.
- Dams, Logging, Mining, and AgricultureDams block access to the cold-water habitats vital for the survival of salmon and steelhead. Removing them restores connectivity across diverse environments, which in turn fosters life history diversity—the more varied the habitats fish can use, the more diverse and resilient they become. Yet even undammed, relatively intact watersheds are threatened by shortsighted land use practices, such as logging and mining, that are known to degrade habitat quality and reduce the spatial distribution, life history complexity, and productivity of wild salmon and steelhead.
TCA's Common-Sense End Goal
Wild rivers full of wild fish.
TCA's priorities are to galvanize anglers in a coalition to protect and enhance our iconic watersheds, which represent the lifeblood of wild steelhead and salmon. These include iconic rivers such as the Klamath, Skeena, and Umpqua, as well as the famous waters of the Olympic Peninsula.
If we take care of the fish, the fisheries will take care of themselves, and it makes sense to go full bore after poor harvest and fishery practices. As William Ruckelshaus said, "Nature provides a free lunch, but only if we control our appetites."
Conservation-oriented fisheries are fundamental to saving these creatures. Regarding appetite, look no further than waterfowl, which only recovered because we ended market hunting and implemented conservation-based hunting practices. Roosevelt elk recovered because we implemented a 30-year hunting moratorium. Wild Steelhead and Chinook are not so depleted that we must end fishing. Still, we need to eliminate open ocean commercial fisheries and need better, more adaptable fisheries that allow fish to express their diversity.
TCA's priorities are to galvanize anglers in a coalition to protect and enhance our iconic watersheds, which represent the lifeblood of wild steelhead and salmon. These include iconic rivers such as the Klamath, Skeena, and Umpqua, as well as the famous waters of the Olympic Peninsula.
If we take care of the fish, the fisheries will take care of themselves, and it makes sense to go full bore after poor harvest and fishery practices. As William Ruckelshaus said, "Nature provides a free lunch, but only if we control our appetites."
Conservation-oriented fisheries are fundamental to saving these creatures. Regarding appetite, look no further than waterfowl, which only recovered because we ended market hunting and implemented conservation-based hunting practices. Roosevelt elk recovered because we implemented a 30-year hunting moratorium. Wild Steelhead and Chinook are not so depleted that we must end fishing. Still, we need to eliminate open ocean commercial fisheries and need better, more adaptable fisheries that allow fish to express their diversity.
Nature provides a free lunch, but only if we control our appetites.
William Ruckelshaus
American Politician
A Tale of Two Case Studies
These are often difficult realities, but consider the alternative and ask yourself if it has worked. We certainly know where we stand, given the federal government has spent over $9 billion in the Columbia River over the past 40 years and is no closer to its goal of 5 million steelhead and salmon passing Bonneville than when the plan started. That is the largest, most expensive project ever implemented to recover an animal, and it has entirely failed. This is because efforts have been a disjointed mix of small-scale habitat projects, increased hatchery releases, and monitoring — all lacking coordination and flexibility, resulting in a tunnel-vision focus on actions that simply didn't work.
Oregon coho are different. They spent millions on habitat, which didn't work, so they quickly pivoted and decreased ocean harvest from 80% down to 15% and greatly reduced hatchery releases. Once ocean conditions improved, run sizes peaked at abundance levels not seen since the 1950s, and the investments in habitat finally paid off. You can't retain wild coho every year, but people can take a few when they are abundant enough.
That is a prime example of a conservation fishery that controls its appetite. What other population of fish can you point to and say: They are now better off than in the 1970s, and they are as abundant as they were in the 1950s.
Oregon coho are different. They spent millions on habitat, which didn't work, so they quickly pivoted and decreased ocean harvest from 80% down to 15% and greatly reduced hatchery releases. Once ocean conditions improved, run sizes peaked at abundance levels not seen since the 1950s, and the investments in habitat finally paid off. You can't retain wild coho every year, but people can take a few when they are abundant enough.
That is a prime example of a conservation fishery that controls its appetite. What other population of fish can you point to and say: They are now better off than in the 1970s, and they are as abundant as they were in the 1950s.