Sunday, January 29, 2012

Yes We Can

Pool 32 Magazine #4

Great article urging action regarding wild steelhead.  Especially nice equating the money spent on gear with the total membership dues received by the Wild Steelhead Coalition

As I have posted in the past, notably absent in much of the conservation world are the guides who make a living (or at least try) on the backs of the wild steelhead runs.  There are some exceptions but on the whole the guide industry is absent when it comes to wild fish issues especially in Washington State.

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Aquaculture is Insatiable

Just another threat to our oceans and fisheries.

Seaweed Aquaculture for Ethanol

This sentence jumped out:
"Seaweed farms also would compete with other uses of the coasts, such as conservation, aquaculture, fishing, recreation and possibly other future forms of renewable energy such as offshore wind and tidal and wave energy."

Sunday, January 15, 2012

Elwha River Unchanged?

Olympic National Park glaciers continue to shrink, most recent study finds

Today's article and pictures in the Peninsula Daily News got me thinking about the common wisdom that the Elwha River above the dams is unchanged since the dams were put in.  I often have repeated this when discussing wild fish restoration.

The fact that glaciers are diminishing and the pictures of the Lillian glacier make me wonder what impacts the loss of glaciers since the early 1900's will have on fish returning to the upper watershed for the first time since the glaciers were much larger.  I'm not even sure that the impacts will be negative, but it is certainly interesting to see such major changes in such a relatively short time frame.

Will decreased and warmer summer flows have negative impacts on returning Elwha fish along with other populations throughout the Olympic Peninsula.