salmon
Environmental Science Wednesday, February 26, 1997Among the many kinds of fish harvested each year by commercial fisheries is theOncorhynchus tshawytscha or Chinook salmon. The United States catches anaverages of about three hundred million pounds of salmon each year. Howeversome Chinook salmon have been recently listed as threatened. Man has been themain cause for the decline in Chinook salmon populations.The populations of Chinook salmon have declined for several reasons. Hydropowerand it's destructiveness to the environment, pollution, and overfishing are thethree main causes for the decline. The Chinook salmon is known for travelingthe greatest distance back to its spawning grounds, often traveling one to twothousand miles inland. This long journey is now often interrupted byhydroelectric plants. Hydropower is
Pollution is also a killer ofmany Chinook salmon. Some nets are designed so the holes in thenets are large enough for the head of the fish to fit through, and then the meshgets caught in the fish's gills. However,when catching the salmon, fisherman use pound nets to catch the fish on theirway to their spawning grounds. Commercial fishersuse nets, which they pull by boats. This does not include the 354,000recreational catches. Thesalmon go back to the same areas, just as their ancestors did, to lay their eggs. The hydropower plant's turbines are also very dangerous to young salmon. New technologies have developed factory sterntrawlers which easily haul netloads of up to 100 metric tons of fish. Killing off many of the salmons new generation. Others are designed to circle around a schoolof fish and then is drawn shut. Thechemicals are dumped into the rivers and streams and eventually these chemicalsfind their way to the ocean, polluting and effecting each area they pass through. From a period of 1990-1992 815,000 Chinook salmonwere caught by commercial fisheries. The National MarineFisheries Service has also proposed a recovery plan for the Chinook salmon. Pollution caused by sewage, farming, grazing, logging andmining find it's way into our waters.
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Acceptance Essays
