Please, please, please… someone put the over-escapement theory of salmon to rest. Take it out to the back-40 and put it to rest with that thing registered in the long-gun registry…
It is popping up this year in regards to Fraser sockeye, more than seal heads at the mouth of the Fraser or Skeena Rivers. Nature returning with bounty — for example this year’s many salmon runs — means everything benefits. I’m sure there is no shortage of grizzly or black bears that faced near starvation last year faced with the bleak 2009 sockeye run. Maybe it even shows in the health and number of cubs that were born during the hibernating months?
This year, many animals can fatten up their winter layers before being faced with several years of potential bleak runs again.
If we want to talk over-escapement:
this year's late run Fraser sockeye prepare to head upstream...
Hey Salmon Guy, got any favorite salmon recipes?
yeah, sockeye fresh out of the ocean or fresh off the river, onto a backyard bbq with a very gentle sprinkle of brown sugar and maple syrup. DO NOT OVERCOOK. take off when first white fat begins to rise to surface. Do not flip. serve with rice. (and cold dark beer).
As far as sockeye over-escapement goes, check these links to two recent stidies.
One from BC;
One from Alaska;
Both agree, escapement levels plateau at a certain point but no evidence of stock collapse.
Hope this helps.
thanks for that Will,
It really is a bizarre thing this salmon over-escapement idea. I seem to remember learning about the cycles of the foxes and the hares in elementary science class. The balance of nature and all of that stuff. Ebb and flow. The tide comes in, the tide goes out…
Really, if we look around — who in the natural world has a problem with over-escapement (which basically means: too many spawners…)?
Maybe it’s the critters that seem to be quite successful these days in shifting the climate. The critters that now have such an impact that they can be explained as a “geologic process” — something generally only given to massive earth moving processes such as glaciation, earthquakes, volcanoes, plate tectonics (if you believe in it), water forming the Grand Canyon, and so on.
Over-escapement is simply a theory… a theory that just makes harvesting more fish a little more convenient (esp. from a policy perspective). The problem is that the world’s fisheries populations just aren’t doing that well. Why?
Oil-burning, technologically advanced, heavily subsidized fishing fleets. Fleets from “have” areas that can travel great distances to “have not” areas. Or simply position themselves to intercept fish before they get to “have not” areas.
I completely support a fishing economy. I’ve been part of one most of my life growing up on coastal B.C. — but when is enough, enough?
When do we make hard decisions? When do we change the “science” and especially the policies that assisted us in getting to this predicament.
thanks again for the links and the comment.