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THE ASTORIAN • THuRSdAy, July 1, 2021
OPINION
editor@dailyastorian.com
KARI BORGEN
Publisher
DERRICK DePLEDGE
Editor
Founded in 1873
SHANNON ARLINT
Circulation Manager
JOHN D. BRUIJN
Production Manager
CARL EARL
Systems Manager
OUR VIEW
A dismal year for salmon
iving into annual salmon numbers tells us
a lot about these iconic Pacific Northwest
fish while raising complex and troubling
questions.
Too often, when dealing with situations fac-
ing salmon — everything from impassible cul-
verts and predator overpopulation to hazard-
ous chemicals and habitat loss behind outmoded
dikes — we overlook that salmon spend the vast
majority of their lives in the ocean. It’s in the open
ocean where salmon face many of their greatest
obstacles.
Its name is a mouthful, but the North Pacific
Anadromous Fish Commission offers one of the
best assessments of fishing pressure on salmon,
as well as hatchery production, which remains a
main tool for improving salmon numbers. The
commission’s report on 2020 — released a month
ago — contains much that will be news even
in these salmon-crazy communities around the
mouth of the Columbia River.
The headline: Salmon abundance in the North
Pacific during 2020 was the lowest recorded in
nearly four decades. This was not a one-year
anomaly; overall catches have been in decline
since 2011.
Population trends
The preliminary combined commercial catch by
vessels based in Canada, Japan, South Korea, Rus-
sia and the United States came to around 669,000
tons and 322.5 million fish. The sheer size of this
dismal catch will take many by surprise in this
region where fishing seasons open and close on
the basis of a few hundred salmon one way or the
other. In other words, even in a bad year there are
many millions of salmon netted in the ocean.
Russian boats caught nearly half this total, the
U.S. 41%, Japan 10%, Canada 1% and South
Korea less than 1%. More than 98% of the U.S.
total was netted in Alaska.
Although pink and chum salmon are hardly
part of the conversation on our part of the coast,
in 2020 pinks comprised nearly half of the North
Pacific total, followed by chum at 27%. Resto-
ration efforts are making some headway for chum
returning to the Columbia and Willapa Bay.
Sockeye were 23% of the 2020 catch total.
Known as bluebacks on the Columbia, there
rarely are enough sockeye for any sort of sea-
son here in our time. Chinook, steelhead and east
Asian cherry salmon were each less than 1% of
the 2020 catch.
Overall, pinks crashed in 2020 to only about a
third what they were in 2018. Chum were caught
Korea 8 million (less than 1%).
Perhaps surprisingly, chum comprised nearly
two-thirds of hatchery production and pinks were
one-quarter of the total. The most prized Pacific
Northwest salmon were produced in much smaller
numbers: Chinook (224 million, 4%); sockeye
(187 million, 4%); coho salmon (82 million, 2%);
and steelhead (19 million, 1%).
D
Oregon State University
Efforts like the Oregon-based Cooperative Institute for
Marine Resources Studies will be key to ensuring ocean
health. The institute’s director, Francis Chan, right, is
pictured at Otter Rock Marine Reserve, with an ocean
sensor on the rocks.
at about 61% of the 10-year average, with particu-
larly steep declines for Japan and Russia.
Honing in on our side of the Pacific, North
America’s total 2020 catch was the lowest since
1977. Dismal chum and sockeye catches in 2020
were the lowest on record in the commission’s
database for Washington state, Oregon and Cal-
ifornia combined. Overall, including Alaska and
British Columbia, the chum harvest was 30% of
2017’s total and sockeye were caught at 80% of
the five-year average. The West Coast commercial
catch of coho and Chinook was too small to war-
rant a mention by the commission in its executive
summary.
Although some might think that fewer salmon
being netted means more are being left to live out
natural lives, totals as bad as these are more likely
to signal there are fewer salmon in the ocean to
be caught. It’s impossible to say this with any cer-
tainty, considering the enormous disruptions the
pandemic imposed on ordinary economic activi-
ties in 2020, including fishing. But at best, it’s very
worrisome to see such low harvest numbers.
The decadelong pattern of decline is despite
relatively constant hatchery releases of around 5
billion a year since 1993. In 2020, U.S. hatcher-
ies released more than 2 billion fish (39% of the
total). Japan released 1.6 billion (31%); Russia
1.3 billion (25%); Canada 209 million (4%); and
Observations
Salmon are proverbial canaries in the coal mine
when it comes to environmental conditions. A
10-year decline culminating in 2020’s truly abys-
mal harvest is a brightly flashing warning sig-
nal about conditions out of sight in the Pacific
Ocean. By soaking up human-generated gases
and chemicals, the planet’s biggest ocean gives us
some breathing room to put the brakes on climate
change. But plunging salmon abundance suggests
that even the vast Pacific is reaching its limits.
Although they’re looked down on by salmon
snobs, pinks and chum are much prized as
high-quality nutrition by people all around the
northern Pacific Rim, in addition to ending up in
pet-food cans. The steepening drop in abundance
of these species will drive up fishing pressure on
nonsalmon species and increase the price of food
for working families.
While hatcheries remain important, pumping
out billions of little salmon won’t achieve bigger
harvests if they just hit the ocean and promptly
die. American hatchery science has come a long
way in the past 30 years, but the Pacific nations all
need to work together to better optimize releases
for success. For example, this may mean keeping
salmon smolts until they are larger, making certain
they have consistently high-quality habitat on their
way to the ocean, and controlling unnatural levels
of predation.
Monitoring of ocean conditions must continue
to improve, along with vigorous enforcement
of fishing rules in international waters. Efforts
like the Newport-based Cooperative Institute for
Marine Resources Studies are on the front line of
trying to get a handle on how “to sustain a pro-
ductive ocean ecosystem in the face of climate
change,” according to its director. The University
of Washington also leads crucial oceanographic
work, and merits strong regional and national
support.
Trouble beneath the ocean’s waves impacts
humanity in fundamental ways. Space explora-
tion generates far more attention, but Earth’s own
watery realm is infinitely more central to our sur-
vival and future prosperity, or lack thereof.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Grandma’s a la mode
T
here must be at least a couple of hun-
dred Grandma restaurants in America,
but at the Grandma’s Corner Restaurant
in Gearhart, off U.S. Highway 101, the
booths are cushioned, the service swift and
the owners know the names of all of their
regular customers.
It’s a place where you can put away
your gadgets and exchange ideas; a kind of
social center where people come not just
for the food, but for the atmosphere and, of
course, to enjoy the food.
It’s almost impossible to exaggerate the
quality of Grandma’s cuisine. Eggs on the
sunny side come out picture perfect, plus
fluffy pancakes, oven fresh biscuits, crisp
hash browns and oatmeal for the fit.
The senior menu is longer than the
regular menu. It’s difficult to find places
where you get more for your money. This
is one of them.
BOB DIETSHE
Manzanita
Property tax abatement
hree words to help ease the housing
shortage and lower rents: Property tax
abatement. Make month-to-month home
rentals more lucrative than short-stay rent-
als by abolishing property taxes on homes,
or portions thereof, rented by the month.
I would rent my house in a heartbeat,
and live a life free of care, supported by
my monthly rental income. No more yard
work. No more costly home maintenance.
No more backyard squabbles. No more
burden of ownership and related monthly
expenses. I could even hire out the head-
aches to a ruthless property manager and
join the ranks of the absentee owners.
Why, I could take vagrancy to a new level.
A newly-minted vagabond. Another career,
perhaps, as a lifestyle consultant. I could bor-
T
row your watch, and tell you the time.
I could become a couch surfer, or even
better, a full-time tourist, toiling in the
industry where work is play, and pro-
ductivity is measured in idle fantasy and
meaningless consumption.
Even now, I am at work. All things
worth doing well are well worth undoing.
GARY DURHEIM
Seaside
Consider bees
s a local in-town beekeeper, I am
reaching out to everyone in Astoria to
please look at the chemicals they spray in
their yards before they use them.
I understand that controlling pests and
weeds is important, but I ask that you
please consider bees and other pollinators.
This week we lost a queen bee, putting an
entire hive at serious risk, while another
hive suffered a serious loss in numbers.
The dead and dying bees on our porch,
in our apiary and around our property tell
a story. There are alternatives, from com-
mercial herbicides to home alternatives
(vinegar). To watch a colony of bees go
from thriving to struggling, almost over-
night, is heartbreaking, to say the least.
We give our honey away. We are not
doing this to profit. Our motives are simple
— we want the bees to thrive so our com-
munity and its gardens do, as well.
We need your help. Please, look at what
you are using before you spray.
THOMAS ANK
Astoria
A
Take a moment
e went to Seattle to visit friends
after COVID-19, and were pleas-
antly surprised that most businesses
allowed fully vaccinated people to enter
W
maskless.
Most took advantage of this but many,
including employees, had masks. Being
fully vaccinated with a high efficacy
helped us feel comfortable not wearing
masks.
However, having coffee with friends,
one asked, “How do you know people
without masks are vaccinated?” It then
dawned on me, who cares?
We trust the vaccine will keep us safe
from the virulent versions of the virus.
People who choose not to get the vaccine
do not really impact those of us who did.
COVID-19 variants are now much
more infectious and deadly, and many
who refuse vaccines have children as part
of their life. She then asked, “Are these
people forcing their opinion on family as
well?”
She then said, “many anti-vaccine
advocates also promote anti pro-choice
opinions. What a dichotomy, not getting
vaccinated impacts those who cannot get
the vaccine yet” (children and the immune
deficient).
She went on to say, “by catching
COVID-19 and/or preventing children and
family members from getting vaccinated,
seems tantamount to practicing retroactive
abortion, and seems patently hypocritical.”
So, we now no longer care if an
anti-vaccine person waives vaccination. It
does not impact the health of most vacci-
nated people.
However, we hope more people, hesi-
tant to be vaccinated, will take a moment
to realize what impact their decision has
on loved ones, or those who cannot be
vaccinated. Please stay safe out there.
THOMAS SMITH
Warrenton