Silent Streams: salmon vanish from Pacific rivers but still appear on the finest menus

In Central California, Bonnie Tognazinni of Tognazinni’s Dockside Fishmarket announced the opening of salmon season to her email list with the news that, for the second year in a row, salmon season would not be opening.
Once again most agree that the main issues continue to be lack of habitat and improper handling of the available water, but all the fishers we know recognize the fact we need to stay off the Salmon resource until conditions improve.
In Central Alaska, U.S. Fish & Wildlife wardens prevented subsistence fishermen from taking the first round of salmon that chugged up the Yukon River, giving those fish a chance to spawn, but leaving the indigenous villagers along the river with a shortage of food, they complained, to get their families through next winter.
In between, a judge authorized the federal government this week to consider demolishing dams that turn the salmon in the Columbia and Snake rivers into sushi before they reach their spawning grounds. U.S. District Judge James A. Redden scolded the previous administration for “treading water and avoiding their obligations under the Endangered Species Act.”
The Bush Administration is also credited with destroying the salmon run on the Klamath, and last year Chinook salmon vanished from the Sacramento.
So these are hard times for salmon on the Pacific Coast. But you can still dine on them from coast to coast. In Morro Bay, Tognazzini plans to serve hook and line wild caught king salmon. It’s a far cry from days of yore recalled by old timers upstream–who tell of heading to the local creek with a baseball bat to club themselves a week-long feast–but it’ll do.
Some rivers are faring better. Alaska’s Copper River was bursting with sockeyes and kings this week when a battalion of gill netters descended upon it for the season opening, and based in part on that river’s yield, Alaska is expected to fatten its coffers on salmon this year. It’s mighty convenient that salmon are thriving in the Copper River, because Copper River salmon are thriving on menus. Once shoved ignominiously into cans, they’re now the Rolls Royce of salmon at the Grand Central Oyster Bar, thanks to clever marketing.
A tip of the cap to Bob Shanbrom for watching the western waters.