Steelhead declines linked with poor survival of young fish in the ocean

[IronNoggin]

Beginning to enumerate what many of us were and are seeing:

https://phys.org/news/2017-06-steelhead-trout-population-declines-linked.html

Sadly,
Nog

[Surrey Boy]

Blame China.

[markomoose]

Start taking the seals out of the equation.Too many of them around!

[adriaticum]

Biologists are always looking for that "one thing" to blame, but in reality it's all of the above and mostly over fishing.

[S.W.A.T.]

Start taking the seals out of the equation.Too many of them around!

Couldn't agree more

[Caribou_lou]

Less seals would benefit all salmon and trout populations.

[Surrey Boy]

Less seals would benefit all salmon and trout populations.

Not to mention they're very marketable, both hides and meat. Millions of dollars we're missing out on.

[REMINGTON JIM]

Less seals would benefit all salmon and trout populations.

YUP Kill the Seals for sure ! Terrible hard on the Fish Population ! :cry: RJ

[HarryToolips]

If their decline like the article says, has been since the 80's, and is strongly attributed to seal populations, you would've seen a crash in seal numbers a while ago, no? I would think the most probable reason for their decline would be the parasites and chemical contaminants their suspecting...I sure hope they figure it out before it's too late..

[Ride Red]

Survival of the young are only one of the problems. I've fished the Nass, Skeena, Bella Coola and Fraser systems for many years. The amount of adult fish poached or just plain misidentified as other catch (Eg: Coho) has been extremely hard on these stocks. Two summers ago on the Skeena a guide and his client from Mexico drug a beautiful steelhead up on the rocks saying it was a coho right beside me. After explaining to the guides client what they'd done, they didn't really want to fish anymore. Of course the guide wasn't happy with me, but someone had to explain right from wrong.

[boxhitch]

Though steelies are not mentioned they are in the same waters


Puget Sound Study: Pinniped Predation On Juvenile Salmon Making Salmon Recovery More Difficult
.......Since the Marine Mammal Protection Act was passed in 1972, populations of marine mammals, such as harbor seals, and Steller and California sea lions have rebounded. However, with the increase in mammal numbers has come a corresponding increase in predation on salmon in Northwest waters, according to a recent study...........
.........In a domino effect, predation, along with other factors, is making it more difficult to restore runs of chinook salmon in Puget Sound,...........
...........Like in the Columbia River, sea lions are the primary predator on adult salmon, but so are killer whales in Puget Sound. As it turns out, though, harbor seals that eat mostly juvenile chinook salmon may be causing the most damage..........
.http://www.cbbulletin.com/439144.aspx

[ACB]

If their decline like the article says, has been since the 80's, and is strongly attributed to seal populations, you would've seen a crash in seal numbers a while ago, no? I would think the most probable reason for their decline would be the parasites and chemical contaminants their suspecting...I sure hope they figure it out before it's too late..
Steelhead have been declining for a long time, the Japanese long line fishing nets (miles long) couldn't of helped. One year in the 80's our all knowing DFO opened the Fraser R. for the UIC chum fishery in October and wiped out an estimated half of the Thompson R. fall summer steelhead run! There's a lot of reasons, seals are probably one of them for sure but it's not the only one, another huge one would be habitat degradation from logging and mining. To truly try to get the salmon and trout back to sustainable numbers we should really be trying to rehabilitate are streams and rivers and not rely on hatcheries to produce are fish.

[rimfire]

Start taking the seals out of the equation.Too many of them around!

Time for an open season on seals?

[Surrey Boy]

Time for an open season on seals?

Like gophers, only better.

[Salty]

If their decline like the article says, has been since the 80's, and is strongly attributed to seal populations, you would've seen a crash in seal numbers a while ago, no? I would think the most probable reason for their decline would be the parasites and chemical contaminants their suspecting...I sure hope they figure it out before it's too late..

Na, the seals would just move on to the next course they have a big variety of food sources. Steelhead smolts would just be a few week a year smorgasbord. Supposedly, hake is a main food source for seals in the Georgia straight. Herring is right up there too.

[tigrr]

Around the Skeena river in the 80's you put your order in at the reserve how many steelhead you want. Gillnet caught.
Some rivers it is hard to believe a steehead could survive being caught 10 times by fly fishermen.

[markomoose]

Na, the seals would just move on to the next course they have a big variety of food sources. Steelhead smolts would just be a few week a year smorgasbord. Supposedly, hake is a main food source for seals in the Georgia straight. Herring is right up there too. Last time I looked salmon eat herring?Not enough herring equals less salmon.Do you agree Salty?

[teebs]

The decline of steelhead and salmon stocks on our coast is an example of death by a thousand cuts. I think it's fairly undeniable that climate change, habitat loss, overfishing, salmon farms and increased predation have all played a significant role in their demise. Personally, I think there's some pretty convincing data out there that fish farms are one of the leading causes, and I don't think it's a coincidence that steelhead stocks that travel through the Broughton Archipelago (ie those from Puget sound) have seen more significant declines than those that stick to the outside of Vancouver Island (ie those on the coast of WA and OR).

[quadrakid]

where is your convincing data about fish farms?

[Salty]

Last time I looked salmon eat herring?Not enough herring equals less salmon.Do you agree Salty?

I absolutely agree. But its a tangled web to try to figure it all out.. the Georgia Straight supports an annual commercial herring fishery and herring numbers remain good, really good actually for most of the straight. Yet salmon returns in the area have been hit and miss. With a lot of miss :( Which when you think about it they only really rely on that herring for the last few months of their life. Most of their life is spent deep at sea and we have not much of a clue what happens out there.

[markomoose]

I absolutely agree. But its a tangled web to try to figure it all out.. the Georgia Straight supports an annual commercial herring fishery and herring numbers remain good, really good actually for most of the straight. Yet salmon returns in the area have been hit and miss. With a lot of miss :( Which when you think about it they only really rely on that herring for the last few months of their life. Most of their life is spent deep at sea and we have not much of a clue what happens out there.Lots of good points there Salty.I still dislike seals and love Steelhead fishing.

[Salty]

I'm no fan either we kill most things in the ocean for food but seals get a pass these days there's too many of them and we've changed the balance. I've lost fish to them before that doesn't help. lol. I found that the seals on the north end of the island were a lot more cautious of humans people aren't so in love with them up there, never had a problem with them stealing fish etc. Mind you there aren't as many seals in my estimation. The Georgia straight though is chock full of Harbour seals. Used to fish off Hornby island in the early 90s, the reel starts screaming and they bail off the rocks and come for lunch. I've had them swimming along side the boat while trolling for a long ways too, sometimes in groups watching and waiting for a fish to hook up

[souwester]

"Salty" your comment on not understanding ocean survival rates is bang on.Pretty much the key issue with steelhead management at this point in time as far as I'm concerned.

[boblly1]

I agree with seal lions or seals if that`s what you choose to call them. In the spawning season they will kill their own wait a day. So i`d say they are a large part of the equation

[boxhitch]

Intensive study of seal poop going on now
Study: Harbor Seals Target Salmon Juveniles Of Conservation Concern In Salish Sea...................Harbor seals eat both adult and juvenile salmon, but the adults they target in the autumn are from healthier stocks of fish (of less conservation concern) than the juveniles they target in the spring, according to a recent study of prey preferred by harbor seals in the Straits of Georgia in British Columbia.

Harbor seals tend to eat adult chum and pink salmon during the fall season, but they target larger juvenile chinook, coho and sockeye salmon, even though there is a higher abundance of chum salmon available in the spring. Those species, according to the study, are of greater conservation concern................................

http://www.cbbulletin.com/439218.aspx

[teebs]

where is your convincing data about fish farms?

Here are a few peer-reviewed articles:

http://science.sciencemag.org/content/318/5857/1772

http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/272/1564/689.short

http://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.0060033

I'm sure there are just as many studies that would say that salmon farms have no impact, but I've done a lot of reading and writing on the subject and personally I find the evidence against salmon farms to be more convincing. I studied fisheries management in school and currently work in that field, and I've met lots of good folks from both sides of the aisle. Unfortunately, marine ecology is just incredibly complicated and we will probably never come to a firm consensus on the issue, but I think we should be considering how to mitigate any possible causes of declining salmon stocks if we want to preserve them.

[303savage]

Seals, There used to be a bounty on them. and you didn't see very many. I was at Texada Island a few years ago and seen hundreds of them pulled out on the rocks. My friend and I went salmon fishing and he told me to turn the clicker off in my real because when the seals heard the clicker on the reel going, the seals would dive off the rocks and come looking for the fish. I left my clicker on and as soon as to seals heard it, the started bailing of the rocks to look for your fish.

Sea lions weren't very common then either.

[lwing]

Old native guy told me they used to hunt seals for food a long time ago, and it kept the numbers down, they don't taste very good he said, now no local First Nations hunt seals I've ever seen. Another old timer told me as a kid he would hunt seals and sell to a guy that sold them to a dog food company.
Usually 3-4 seals in the local river chasing salmon, last year saw a group around 30-40, it was quite the sight, stopped a lot of traffic, can't imagine how easy it is in the river for that large group to be pretty devastating
Need to find a way to market seal meat, blubber and hide for the natives because there the only ones who will ever be allowed. Maybe take some pressure off all the food fish they sell.