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THE ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, AUGUST 13, 2019
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Photos by Alaska Fish and Game
Spawning pink salmon in Anan Creek, near Wrangell, Alaska.
Pink salmon numbers may threaten
other species in the North Pacifi c
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By DAN JOLING
Associated Press
ANCHORAGE — Biological oceanogra-
pher Sonia Batten experienced her lightbulb
moment on the perils of too many salmon
three years ago as she prepared a talk on the
most important North Pacifi c seafood you’ll
never see on a plate — zooplankton.
Zooplanktons nourish everything from
juvenile salmon to seabirds to giant whales.
But as Batten examined 15 years of data
collected by instruments on container ships
near the Aleutian Islands, she noticed a trend:
zooplankton was abundant in even-number
years and less abundant in odd-number years.
Something was stripping a basic building
block in the food web every other year. And
just one predator fi t that profi le.
“The only thing that we have in this whole
area with an up and down, alternating-year
pattern is pink salmon,” said Batten of Cana-
da’s Marine Biological Association.
Pink salmon are wildly abundant in
odd-number years and less abundant in
even-number years. They comprise nearly
70 percent of what’s now the largest number
of salmon populating the North Pacifi c since
last century.
But an increasing number of marine
researchers say the voracious eaters are thriv-
ing at the expense of higher-value sock-
eye salmon, seabirds and other species with
whom their diet overlaps.
In addition to the fl ourishing wild pop-
ulations of pink salmon, Alaska hatcheries
release 1.8 billion pink salmon fry annually.
And hatcheries in Asian countries contribute
an additional 3 billion-plus fi sh.
“We’re putting too many mouths to com-
pete with the wild fi sh out there,” says Nancy
Hillstrand, owner of a fi sh processing com-
pany near Homer, Alaska, who has been lob-
bying Alaska wildlife authorities to reduce
hatchery output.
A 2018 study estimated 665 million adult
salmon in the North Pacifi c. Pink salmon
dominated at 67%, followed by chums at
20% and sockeye at 13%. Salmon abun-
dance since the late 1970s has been enhanced
by favorable ocean conditions but hatcher-
ies account for 15% of the pinks, 60% of the
chums and 4% of the sockeyes.
State regulators say they have no evidence
that the ocean has reached its carrying capac-
ity for hatchery fi sh, which rewarded Alaska
commercial fi shermen with sales averaging
$120 million for 2012 through 2017. They
are loath to seek a reduction in hatchery out-
put because of the economic, societal and
cultural value of the fi sh.
“The program has been successful and
continues to provide benefi t to Alaskans,”
said Bill Templin, chief fi sheries scientist for
the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.
But scientists who don’t have a connec-
tion to the department take a different view.
Alan Springer, professor emeritus at the
Marine Science Institute at the University of
Alaska Fairbanks, sees detrimental effects
in seabirds whose diets overlap with pink
salmon.
“There’s a fi nite amount of what they eat
out there,” he said.
Springer co-wrote a 2014 paper published
in the Proceedings of the National Academy
of Sciences that noted reproduction of tufted
puffi ns and kittiwakes nosedives in years of
pink salmon abundance.
A 2018 paper in the same journal linked
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Pink salmon fry.
years of abundant pink salmon with mass
mortalities of short-tailed shearwaters.
“We looked for other potential driv-
ers in the environment,” Springer said. “We
couldn’t fi nd any.”
Greg Ruggerone, president of Natural
Resources Consultants in Seattle, began ana-
lyzing pink salmon interactions with sock-
eye salmon in 2009 when the sockeye popu-
lation collapsed in British Columbia’s Fraser
River. Sockeye returns fell when pink salmon
were abundant, he said, and the sockeye were
1 pound (0.45 kilograms) smaller in those
years.
The results, Ruggerone said, suggest
“there is this link between sockeye salmon
and pink salmon related to competition for
food.”
A University of Washington study pub-
lished in Nature Ecology & Evolution con-
cluded that climate warming is creating
favorable conditions for sockeye leaving in
freshwater for Alaska’s Bristol Bay, allowing
them to grow faster in lakes and leave for the
ocean after one year instead of two, said lead
author Timothy Cline.
However, competition from wild and
hatchery salmon — both pinks and chums
released by Japan — delayed sockeye mat-
uration and kept them in saltwater an extra
year.
“There’s pretty consistent evidence com-
ing out in the last decade that we are at or near
that carrying capacity and it’s starting to have
impacts on growth and survival of salmon all
over,” he said.
The state of Alaska is nearing the end of
a 12-year study looking at the proportions
of hatchery fi sh that swim into streams, said
Templin, chief fi sheries scientist.
The state is not studying whether hatch-
ery pink salmon are thriving at the expense of
sockeye, Chinook salmon, seabirds or other
ocean residents, he said, noting that correla-
tions do not indicate causes.
Changing ocean conditions may affect
various species differently and make one of
them better able to survive, Templin said.
He’s not ready to recommend a reduction
in hatchery output because of the economic,
societal and cultural value of hatchery fi sh.
Ruggerone would like to see rigorous
debate on the pros and cons of releasing bil-
lions of hatchery salmon, especially pinks.
“There’s really no other species in the
ocean that we are aware of that we have data
that can explain these biennial patterns that
we see,” he said.
If it’s not pink salmon causing problems
in other species, Springer said, state scientists
should suggest what is.
“We’re not making this stuff up,” he
added.
Mention Code:
19AugMicro
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Youngs Bay Plaza
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Warrenton, OR 97146
(503) 836-7921
2505 Main Ave N, Suite C
Tillamook, OR 97141
(503) 836-7926
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