Something's Fishy Here...

I would like to begin a series in which I discuss the plight of anadromous fish – those that spawn in fresh water and return to the sea to grow to adulthood – in the Pacific Northwest.

For most people, the word “salmon” connotes a pink, saran-wrapped slab of meat found in the local supermarket’s seafood showcase. The association with salmon and the state of Alaska has been cultivated through fabulous photography illustrating the relationship between the fish and the magnificent grizzly bears of that part of the world. In truth, Pacific salmon range from California, up the coasts of Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia. At one time or another, every stream feeding into a river that entered the Pacific Ocean was likely a spawning ground for these fish. To understand their story is to understand most of the things that we have done to destroy the planet and ultimately ourselves, but I am far from ready to tackle that narrative. So by way of introduction I would like to offer a quick, non-scientific profile of PNW salmonids.

To begin with, the salmonid family includes salmon, trout, char, grayling, and whitefish. Common to all of the fish in these families is the need for cold, clear water and gravelly stream bottoms on which to spawn. The life cycle of the anadromous members takes them from the spawning beds, or redds, downstream to the vast expanse of the Pacific Ocean, where they will feed and grow and fight to survive for the next three to five years. The adults then return to spawn a new generation and die. Their decomposing bodies guarantee nourishment for the emerging larvae, or alevins, which grow eventually into smolts. These infant fish face a long and perilous journey back to the sea to complete the cycle. This process has occurred for millions of years.

But let me return to our grocery store filets. Most people will recognize two broad classifications of fish in the display case – “wild” and “farmed.” Farmed fish are pen-raised, pellet fed, and artificially dyed red for the commercial market. Why the dye? Because true wild fish are predators and feed on marine life, especially crustaceans, that naturally infuse their flesh with its deep rich red color. Their flesh is well muscled and oxygenated because they in turn are preyed upon and are therefore capable of explosive bursts of speed. Wild fish also build up fat reserves, rich in Omega-3, to sustain them on their long journey back to the redds.

If the distinction between wild and farmed fish was all that we needed to consider my story would be done. But there are further differences that must be noted, since there are six types of anadromous salmonids along the Pacific coast. The first is easy to identify and explain. Steelhead (also known as “steelies” or “metalheads”) are rainbow trout that spend part of their life in the sea. Unlike salmon, they do not die after spawning. While steelhead smolts will eventually return to the sea that is not necessarily the case for adult fish. In Oregon and Washington steelhead are classified as game fish – that is, they are not permitted to be commercially harvested.

They next five types of anadromous fish are the true salmon. This group includes Chinook, or King salmon, Coho, or Silver salmon, as well as Sockeye, Pink and Chum salmon. In the Pacific Northwest the most prized are the first three. They are also the most vulnerable, since they are valued by commercial and sport fishermen alike. They have been at the heart of conservation battles between these two groups and the power generating companies, refereed by Federal and state governments through dozens of regulatory bodies.  These battles have raged for decades at the cost of billions of dollars.  But that is a story for another time.

So far I have distinguished between wild and farmed fish, steelhead and salmon. Now let’s identify another variable in the equation. Salmon and Steelhead famously return to the same spawning beds from which they were hatched. The mass of fish returning to a specific spawning system is referred to as a run.  The runs occur at specific times of year, adding an additional complexity factor. Also, fish return in different sequences in different rivers. For example, in the Columbia River there are spring, summer and fall runs. To the south, the Rogue River has spring and fall salmon runs and summer and winter steelhead runs. The Columbia sees Steelhead, Chinook, Coho, and Sockeye, while only Chinook and Steelhead return to the Rogue. In the huge water system feeding the Columbia River, fish turn to the left to head up Washington rivers, to the right to enter Oregon rivers, and continue straight to get to the Snake River dividing Oregon and Idaho. This leads us to identify subsets of fish with labels like LRBs and URBs (Lower River Brights and Upper River Brights), Tules, and Redfish Lake Sockeye. All of these permutations add to the complexity of managing the fish, especially the many subsets that include threatened and endangered species. But as the guy on TV says, “Wait. There’s more.”

Now we need to get down into the weeds to understand what “wild,” means in the context of this discussion. It’s pretty simple. "Wild" can mean any fish that completed the river-to-sea-and-back life cycle described earlier. It can also have a more specific meaning in referring to fish of original native stock that complete the circle of life. There is a huge difference between the two definitions – all because of a creation known as the hatchery fish.

Hatchery fished are raised from eggs and milt extracted from fish who return to the hatchery in which they were raised. The depleted adults are killed and returned – and this is important for another discussion - not to the water to provide a nutrient base, but to iced boxes for sale to cat food producers, fish markets, fertilizer companies, and distribution to food banks. The alevins are raised in concreted pens, fed pelleted food, monitored for disease, and eventually released as smolts into their home river. For future recognition, they are marked by being fin-clipped, a process involving the mechanical removal of the small, rearmost fin along the fishes back know as the adipose fin. When an adult fish is harvested, the presence or absence of an adipose fin determines whether the fish can be kept or must be retuned unharmed to the water. This is true whether the fish is caught by a sport fisherman with rod and reel, or a commercial fisherman hauling an insidious device behind a boat known as a gillnet. But that too is a story for another day.  The point is, a hatchery fish may be considered "wild" because it has journeyed to the sea and back.  However it is most definitely not a native fish.

I hope to this point the reader has begun to see that the arena in which the battle to conserve wild and native salmon and steelhead is fought is truly multidimensional and very confusing. As the muses move me I will add my perspective on several aspects of the struggle by offering my own experiences and describing my involvement with the Coastal Conservation Association. Whether you fish or not, I hope you will find value in my account and consider why issues raised are ultimately important to you.