Changing themes in conservation: A brief, 35 year, personal perspective

Thomas Quinn School of Aquatic and Sciences University of Washington Photo: John McMillan

Cessation of blue whale hunting: 1967

Earth Day, April 22, 1970 Dailygalaxy.com How do salmon find their way home from the open ocean? Might they use Earth’s magnetic field for orientation?

1976 - 1981

Tarbuck & Lutgens. 1984. The Earth - An Introduction to Physical Geology “Consciousness-raising”

History of human assaults on salmon by over-fishing, harsh land-use practices, dams blocking rivers, and substitution of hatchery for wild fish. Role of salmon in their ecosystem, revealed by Jeff Cederholm and other early advocates of wild salmon. Conservation themes emphasized by salmon biologists in the late 1970s

 Effects of logging on salmon in freshwater

The effects of logging on salmon have been ameliorated in many cases, and we have come to see logging as a much smaller threat than other land-use changes. (Better Weyerhaeuser than WalMart?) Conservation themes emphasized by salmon biologists in the late 1970s  Interception – US – Canada – Alaska, etc.

Photo: Peter Westley Conservation themes emphasized by salmon biologists in the late 1970s

Interceptions by Japanese fisheries on the high seas High-seas fisheries were progressively reduced and then eliminated in 1992, making the open ocean a refuge for salmon. Rapidly changing legal landscape affecting conservation and salmon in the late 1970s

 1972: Marine Mammal Protection Act  1973: Endangered Species Act (prior versions)  1974: United States v. Washington (Boldt decision)

 1976: Magnuson Fisheries Conservation Act (200 mile EEZ)

All had direct or indirect effects on salmon conservation and management Rapidly changing management responsibilities and sources of funding

 Transition from state to federal control (ESA)  Onset of tribal responsibilities  Role of foundations in the politics and funding of conservation (Moore, Pew, Sloan, WWF, etc.)

Conservation themes barely on the radar screen in the late 1970s  Expansion of salmon aquaculture: interactions with wild populations, disease, economic pressures on capture fisheries, and complex public perceptions

maine.gov smartplanet.com

stephenleahy.net Undesirable invasive species

The parasite that causes whirling disease () was first discovered in the U. S. in Pennsylvania in 1956. Reported in many states, it continues to spread.

New Zealand mud snails. First US detection Didymosphenia geminata in the Snake River, Idaho in 1987 (Didymo or rock snot, a diatom) Smallmouth bass, walleye, and other predatory non- salmonids introduced for recreational fishing eat young salmon. Photo: Andrew Hendry

Predatory northern pike have been brought into Alaskan lakes where they were not native. Invasive salmonids are now seen as part of the problem, as well as victims Predators, competitors, hybridization Lake trout in Yellowstone Lake

Brook trout in the west Sea lamprey are a huge threat to the Great Lakes ecosystem but their relative, the Pacific lamprey, is granted special protections and we struggle to facilitate their upstream migration.

Photo: Paul Bentzen Conservation themes barely on the radar screen in the late 1970s  Contaminants as threats to salmon and human health  Diseases

Diseases were seen as largely a hatchery problem rather than a problem for wild salmon and their ecosystems. Toxics were not widely appreciated as a problem except in areas such as the Great Lakes. Predation by marine mammals  Sea lions (Herschel) at the Ballard Locks, harbor seals in Hood Canal, sea lions (California and Steller’s) at Bonneville Dam, etc. Marine mammals increased in abundance, and conflicts with salmon soon followed.  They compete with us, but we also compete with them.

klamathbasincrisis.org Salmon: Fertilizer as well as fish

 Importance of marine-derived nutrients from salmon for ecosystem processes: wildlife, fish production, riparian vegetation.

BioComplexity and the Portfolio Effect

 The importance of intra-specific variation for the persistence and productivity of salmon “stocks” under varying climate regimes. Connection with salmon biology and conservation in Russia: abundance and diversity Climate change

 Global air, water temperature and precipitation  “Regime shifts” in ocean conditions affecting salmon

1977

1983 Post-1977 Pre-1977

Mantua, Hare, Zhang, Wallace, and Francis. 1997. A Pacific interdecadal climate oscillation with impacts on salmon production. Bull Am Meteor Soc 78:1069-1079. Most salmon biologists viewed the ocean as: 1. Not limiting for salmon (freshwater carrying capacity) 2. Not changing in important ways from year to year 3. Not knowable anyway

Many A few smolts adults enter return 250,000 Alaska salmon The reversed trends catch, all species in northern and 200,000 (ADF&G data) southern areas was 150,000 unnoticed at the time. 100,000

50,000 Catches (1000s) of salmon 0.25 0 1900 1925 1950 1975 2000 0.20

0.15

0.10 Survival rate of wild coho 0.05 salmon in Washington

0.00 (Beetz 2009) 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 Brood year Climate change: Salmon are full of surprises

 Southern end of the species’ range  Degraded (Puyallup River, etc.) :  Poor marine survival of other salmon  “Global warming”

Eric Warner Jonny Armstrong Climate change: Paramount concern or distraction?

 Global changes in climate and ocean conditions (temperature, pH, etc.) are very real and very serious, but  Few, if any, of us can really affect the climate, but we can still do a lot of good (or harm) as we protect, restore (or degrade) specific .  Many conservation gains and losses are on local scales.  The importance of global processes should not be used as an excuse to ignore specific things that we can do. Pendulum of scientific focus

Local Global

We now reduce, reuse, Thomas Malthus did not recycle and compost, foresee the Green but what is the carrying Revolution but does that capacity of the planet make him wrong? for humans?

Jonathan Swift’s “A Modest Proposal” Constant concerns for salmon conservation since the 1970s: The infamous “4-H” Club

1) Habitat degradation 2) Harvest (i.e., over-fishing) 3) Hydro (dams) 4) Hatcheries (used to address 1, 2, and 3) Habitat degradation

• The great majority of lifetime mortality takes place in the embryonic stages, spent in streams • Chinook and , and trout use stream habitats for rearing as well as incubation • So, streams have generally been seen as the “bottleneck” for salmon (and the ocean is less amenable to manipulation, anyway) Harvest: Over- (unsustainable) fishing

• Unregulated fisheries tend to over-exploit their base. Motors allowed the capture of salmon far from home, breaking the link between over-fishing and under-supply, and starting a race for fish. • Less productive but still self-sustaining populations got reduced or eliminated, lowering diversity and portfolio buffering effects. • Habitat degradation reduced productivity, exacerbating the effects of fishing.

Hydro: Dam construction and operation

 Impassable dams on the Columbia, Klamath, and many other rivers greatly reduced habitat for migratory fishes and altered the river systems.  Passable dams also affect temperature, flow, and sediment transport, important to fishes.  Dams, combined with degradation of accessible habitat and over-fishing, created an endless “blame-game” whose only resolution, it seemed, was artificial production. Hatcheries – the 4th “H”  Hatcheries improve egg-fry survival rates, and so can often sustain higher fishing rates than wild populations. However, wild runs diminish from simple mixed-stock interceptions.  Ecological interactions (predation, competition, disease, etc.) often limit overall production.  Genetic changes rapidly reduce the fitness of fish under domestication, affecting wild fish that interbreed with them. So, what do we do?

 Some advocate a “stronghold” approach:

“…by protecting the best remaining salmon ecosystems throughout their range, wild salmon can not only survive, but thrive, for generations to come.”

William Ruckelshaus, former head of the EPA, and John Kitzhaber, former governor of Oregon

Op-Ed piece, Seattle Times, June 13, 2008 Is conservation going to be a series of battles to protect our strongholds, or can we gain ground?

River re-connection represents a powerful way to improve habitat for fishes and other parts of the ecosystem, and convey to the public the benefits of restoration.

Marmot Dam, Sandy River, OR Edwards Dam, Kennebec River, Maine Gordon Grant, U.S. F.S. Photo Associated Press Photo

The Elwha River • Situated largely in a national park • Storied for its large-bodied • Produces all the native salmon, trout and char species

Elwha Dam, built from 1910 to 1913 at river km 7.9, blocked anadromous fish from the upper 130 km of mainstem and tributary access, including Lake Sutherland.

Photo credit: Seattle Times Dam breaching on the Elwha River, September 2011. Photo: John McMillan, NOAA-Fisheries Alan Olson Joe Anderson

Morgan Bond Kathryn Kelsey Celebrate the salmon. To infinity, and beyond!

John McMillan