The Salmon's Gift

The Salmon’s Gift

“Ain’t no sunshine when she’s gone...”-Bill Withers

    It was frozen into the top of the beaver dam.  The blood on the snow was fresh.  The tracks of fox, coyote, and otter concentrated around the perimeters of the pool packing down the snow. I felt like I was walking up onto a murder scene.

     Down below the dam, in the clear, deep pool were the last of his troop.  There were about fifty of them still alive mindlessly swaying in the current.  It’s mid November in Alaska and if you are a salmon that happens to still be alive then one thing is for sure; you are living on borrowed time.

       The swimmers, still marginally wary, darted from my reflection.  An attempt at a cursory escape, their efforts were futile.  They turned in unison making their way to the other side of the pool.   This pool, the size of a tennis court was thwarted by a ten foot-tall beaver dam.  They were at the end of the line.

     A few of their fallen brethren were scattered about on the bottom of the pool.  They bodies had run their course and were motionless in various positions; One was on its side, another belly up.  The process of decay had already begun and I was sure that it wouldn’t be long before they were gone altogether.  But then again, I know better.

    When salmon push up into their native streams to spawn, they bring with them all of the nutrients they have accumulated in their 2 to 7 years in the ocean.  When they die these same nutrients get re-distributed to a wide variety of organisms.  According to ADFG, researchers have found that salmon provide food for at least 137 different species of microbes, stream invertebrates, mammals and birds.

    Coowe Walker, who is a program Watershed Ecologist for the University of Alaska believes that these “salmon-derived” nutrients are important to the health of stream ecosystems, and especially to the growth and development of young fish. Circle of life? (Cue Lion King soundtrack)

   The trees, and plants utilize the nutrients from the salmon.  In return the trees and plants provide ideal habitat for spawning salmon ensuring the survival of juvenile salmon.  

  I couldn’t stop thinking about the future of this very salmon stream.  It makes me feel so small to realize that, since so many salmon are spawning this year it cannot be by accident.  One hundred years ago, conditions were just right.  Three hundred years ago...same.  How far back have conditions been favorable for salmon in this very stream so that in 2017 there are at least 50 fish swaying in the current so high in the river’s system on November 11th?

     I cannot ignore what I have learned by paying attention to the History of Salmon.  Europe, England, the East and West Coast of America once all had great salmon runs like we have in Alaska now. One by one big-industry, over-development and overfishing have decimated these runs.

     If history is any indication then we are next.  Alaska remains the last stronghold of salmon super-abundance.  As a commercial fisherman in Cook Inlet and Bristol Bay I have seen it first hand.  We are living in the glory days of giant runs of salmon.

    So how do we proceed?  The answer to this question is so simple it’s maddening.  Don’t screw it up.  Don’t kill too many of them, (Thank you board of Fish and ADFG) and equally as important; don’t destroy their habitat.  These are the two big lessons.

    All we have to do is learn from history.  If we don’t then we’ll have to settle for longingly reflecting about how it used to be.   Can you imagine an Alaska without Salmon?

Hazelee helping with our families setnet operation.

    I’m pro-development of Alaska’s resources but I realize that it’s not smart to trade one resource for another.  What would happen if coal, or natural gas, or a damming project were pursued in this stream valley before me? Who knows?

     Existing statutes on development in sensitive salmon streams have not been updated since statehood and are putting our salmon at risk.  Already we have had fend off the ridiculously irresponsible Pebble mine and Susitna-Watana Dam projects that science and history tells us would destroy huge salmon watersheds.  There needs to be agreed-upon criteria to protect salmon streams.  We can’t trust the whims of the latest gubernatorial administration to do the right thing.

    I was slow to leave this incredible scene and as I started to wade across the creek I stopped in my tracks.   There, in the middle of the stream swirling in an eddy were a hundred-or-so salmon eggs.  Some were partially buried, but some of them were adrift in the current.  “Are these fertilized eggs?”, I wondered.  I slowly backed up.  I decided instead to cross over the beaver dam.  

http://www.standforsalmon.org/