Two thirds of the native salmon, steelhead, and trout in California are heading toward extinction, unless there are some major changes made in how the state manages and protects its rivers, according to a report that was recently released by one of the top fish experts in the state. According to Peter Moyle, who is a biologist with UC Davis who released the report, says that after long records of decline, things still continue to get worse. Moyle is considered to be a top authority on the native fish in California.
Of the 32 different varieties of steelhead, trout and salmon in California, one is already extinct; the bull trout. Of the remaining varieties, all but two are either protected by endangered species laws, or already designated for special consideration because such protection will probably be required.
Moyle also found that twenty of those 32 species of salmon, steelhead and trout could be extinct within the next 100 years, though many of them are likely going to be gone much sooner than this. There are numerous causes that are contributing to the decline, including dams blocking the fish from reaching their spawning habitats, logging of the redwood forests, water diversions, siltation and decreased water quality. Another leading cause is hatcheries, because breeding between the wild fish and those that are raised in the hatcheries has led to populations that are more homogenized. Salmon are now tending to migrate more during the same time, leaving more fish in a vulnerable state if there is a pollution discharge that occurs as the fish pass through a river.
Moyle's report, called "SOS: California's Native Fish Crisis" took an entire two years to complete, and was born of conversations about how no one was taking a comprehensive look at those fish and their status. It was commissioned by California Trout, which is a recreational and environmental advocacy group in California. Moyle says that he was surprised that nobody had yet done an overview of what had been happening to California's trout and salmon. Nobody had ever been looking at the big picture up until now.
In some ways, the findings in the report are not really surprising. Last year, the most valuable of all salmon runs in the state, the Central Valley fall run Chinook, collapsed so dramatically that a commercial fishery had to be closed that was worth $100 million dollars a year up until recently. Still, Moyle believes that the breadth of the problem was escaping notice on a large scale because biologists are focusing on problems with the rivers and species that they are directly interested in rather than in the problem as a whole.
The most likely fish to go extinct within the next fifty years are pink salmon and chum salmon, which have never really been common within California, as well as the coho salmon of the Central Coast, which range from Santa Cruise up to the Humboldt County.
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