A poor salmon season is being forecast for many species in the waters of the U.S. and Canadian Pacific Northwest.
The Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada has predicted below average returns and smaller sizes for most species across the board.
The number of spring chinook returning to the Columbia River is forecast to be 14 percent smaller than last year, which would be half of the 10-year average, according to a Seattle Times report. Just under 30,000 chinook salmon are forecast to come back to the Puget Sound, which is down from last year, but is 11 percent more than the 10-year average.
In Seattle’s Lake Washington, just over 15,000 fish are expected to return, which is down 82 percent from the 10-year average. A minimum of 350,000 returning fish would be needed for a recreational fishing season, and there has not been one on Lake Washington for more than 10 years.
Coho salmon, on the other hand, are predicted to beat last year’s returns by more than 100,000 fish, which would be a 15 percent increase from the 10-year average. By and large, coho salmon have avoided the ocean conditions which have caused the historically poor salmon returns.
Scientists believe that the diminished salmon returns are a result of “The Blob,” a large mass of unusually hot water off the West Coast of the continent, which began forming in 2014. The Blob has contributed to lower survival rates for juvenile salmon and has allowed for the survival of invasive tropical species that compete with salmon for food sources.
This theory has been confirmed as recently as this past summer, when the Bell M. Shimada research ship was deployed off the Washington state coast by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and observed firsthand the dearth of juvenile salmon.
