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THE ASTORIAN • SATURDAY, JULY 13, 2019
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THE ASTORIAN • SATURDAY, JULY 13, 2019 • B1
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Science center in Sitka
provides window into
marine life’s future S
Photos by David Campiche
TOP: Indian River meets Sitka Bay where the salmon come home. BELOW:
A black bear eating breakfast. RIGHT: The bones of a killer whale at the
Sitka Sound Science Center. BELOW RIGHT: Lingcod and quillfi sh bass.
By DAVID CAMPICHE
For The Astorian
almon are the heartbeat of Alaska,
as they are for the familiar com-
munities of Astoria and Warrenton,
Ilwaco and Chinook. They travel as far
upriver as an eagle’s far-reaching eyes
can see, all 1,400 miles, always unrav-
eling the way water travels, by tide and
currents and the grace of an undefi nable
but ever-present force.
Historic salmon runs were estimated
in the tens of millions. Last year, the
Big River netted less than a million.
Alaska has done far better with its net-
work of hundreds of well-healed rivers,
though 2018 was a bust in a number of
salmon towns. Herring runs fell dramat-
ically. Fish are dependent on a healthy
food chain. More recently, that biologi-
cal reality appears in some jeopardy.
“If you blame someone else, there
is no end to the blame,” so said Lao
Tzu 400 years before Christ. But there
does seem to be plenty of fi nger-point-
ing to go around. Some say the decline
in fi sh runs is due mainly to predators:
sea lions and seals, Caspian terns, cor-
morants and even seagulls. In Alaska, a
grizzly or brown bear can devour doz-
ens of salmon a day. That makes for
great photographs but unfortunately
adds up to big numbers of depleted fi sh.
It is sad to say that human beings
share a major part of this story. Once
again we are passing around blame,
but the fi ngers are pointing at our-
selves. The number of dams on the
Columbia and Snake rivers loom large.
Deep in the coastal range, riparian zone
destruction remains a visible reminder
of our once old growth forests. Histor-
ically, fl ora and fauna were ripped from
steep hillsides after man-built splash
dams were dynamited and huge ever-
greens careened down the streams,
tearing and slashing on their descent
to larger water. Subsequently, winter
rains buried salmon smolts under layers
of unctuous mud after the forests were
denuded.
See Sitka, Page B2