The Importance of Wild Salmon on Various Facets of Human Life and On the Ecosystems in and Around Co

<<This discussion is a continuation from previous posts. To read the introduction, click here.>>

Wild salmon are a cultural icon, an economic resource, a healthy food source, and a way of life for communities from California to Alaska. These fish are extremely valuable to society and need to be properly protected. The lifecycle of wild Pacific salmon is anadromous, meaning they migrate from the ocean to freshwater, spawn in freshwater, and eventually return to the ocean after a certain period of time, depending on the particular species.[1] The migration patterns of wild salmon vary among each species; however, in the case of the Columbia River, certain species of wild salmon have been known to migrate thousands of kilometers inland into the river’s headwaters.[2] These migration patterns, known as salmon runs, have historically attracted huge crowds that marvel at the extraordinary biological phenomena of these runs, along with their aesthetic beauty. Because of these crowds, salmon have ordained a vast tourist industry, supporting many facets of the Pacific Northwest economy. [3]

In addition to tourism, salmon fishing has become its own macrocosm and another major driver of industry growth in the Northwestern United States.[4] As one of the most widely consumed fish in the United States due to its health benefits and robust flavor, the demand for salmon has been historically high and fishermen were more than willing to supply. In 1992, the fishing industry for salmon produced over $1 billion in personal income and more than 60,000 jobs in the Pacific Northwest region.[5] In these coastal communities, the salmon fishing industry intricately connects many businesses and their remarkable success. Jobs are created throughout every process of the salmon catching/distributing process; factories that process the fish need employees along with those who export the fish to various places around the world. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Alaskan Salmon exports generate over $250 million each year.[6] Wild salmon have had a vast effect on the United States economy by creating state and federal tax revenues.

Salmon have had a long history with native peoples whose existence has heavily depended on their annual return. For example, tribes living in the Pacific Rim not only depend on salmon for food, but also as a critical component of their traditional culture.[7] These cultures enjoy ceremonies to honor the first return of the year.[8] The salmon is also an important creature in several strands of Celtic mythology and poetry, which often associated them with wisdom and venerability.[9]

In addition to greatly benefiting many aspects of humanity, salmon are also a keystone species, supporting a variety of flora and fauna and therefore acts as an indicator of overall environmental quality and health in the ecosystems they inhabit.[10] For one, they are a primary food for predators such as bears and birds of prey, but also for animals such as aquatic invertebrates along with other fish, and terrestrial fauna.[11] Salmon provides sustenance for more than 137 animal species;[12] however, not forgetting that their decomposing carcasses are also a significant source of nutrients and fertilizer to trees and other surrounding ecosystems that do not even directly touch river systems. For example, bears capture the salmon and carry them into adjacent wooded areas where they leave the salmon carcasses on the forest floor, providing as much as twenty-four percent of the total nitrogen available to the riparian woodlands at a rate of approximately 6.77 kilograms per hectare.[13] The salmon runs also function as enormous “pumps” that push vast amounts of marine nutrients from the ocean, rich in nitrogen, sulfur, carbon, and phosphorus, into fresh water and inland ecosystems.[14]

Ensuring the long-term survival of salmon is a paramount goal when considering the dynamic benefits they provide for man and nature alike. We must prioritize the restoration of ecosystems in which wild salmon inhabit in order to work in conjunction with an environmentally-friendly economy. Creating a management plan to ensure the protection of wild salmon would be pivotal to effectuate that goal. A management plan has, in fact, been created under the ESA and proven itself to fall short of its potential effectiveness. One indispensable attribute of law written by humans is the behavior of incorporating an anthropocentric bias toward the preservation of human survival, such as dams, which quantifiably benefit humans by storing precious water. In contrast, it becomes much more difficult to subscribe the same value toward less-obvious essential components of our economy, such as wild salmon. Nonetheless, the importance of wild salmon cannot be stressed enough. Maintaining a healthy river ecosystem is imperative for the annual runs of these majestic salmon. Man and nature inherently live as one entity, and depend on one another. These facts warrant the urgent changes man must make within the law and the nexus of paradigms, in order to ensure the survival of salmon.

To read about the reasons why this precious species' population is declining, click here.

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[1] Marine and Anadromous Fish, NOAA Fisheries Off. of Protected Resources (Nov. 3, 2012, 8:00 P.M.), http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/pr/species/fish/.

[2] Robert T. Lackey, Restoring Wild Salmon to the Pacific Northwest: Chasing an Illusion?, What We Don’t Know about Pacific Northwest Fish Runs – An Inquiry into Decision-Making 91 (2000), available at http://www.epa.gov/wed/pages/staff/lackey/pubs/illusion.htm.

[3] Steve P. Young, Salmon v. Hydropower in the Columbia Basin: The Time for Action Is Now, 15 J. Energy Nat. Resources & Envtl. L. 473, 498 (1995).

[4] Lackey, supra, at § 5.

[5] Oregon Rivers Council Inc., The Economic Imperative of Protecting Riverine Habitat in the Pacific Northwest. Research Report No. v. (1992).

[6] This data was compiled using U.S. Census estimates for total U.S. Exports via Alaska between 2008 and 2011, U.S. Census Bureau, http://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/statistics/state/data/ak.html. (last visited Nov. 8, 2012).

[7] Sophie Thériault, Ghislain Otis, Gérard Duhaime, and Christopher Furgal, The Legal Protection of Subsistence: A Prerequisite of Food Security for the Inuit of Alaska, 22 Alaska L. Rev. 35, 37 (2005)

[8] Id.

[9] Natalie Kirschstein, Two Magical Arts: Music and Poetry in Irish and Welsh Mythology, and their 21st Century Reinterpretation, 17 Ars Lyrica 25 (2008).

[10] Michael C. Blumm, Why Study Pacific Salmon Law?, 22 Idaho L. Rev. 629 (1986) (discussing how salmon are effective barometers of the adequacy of the water resource to support a host of consumptive and recreational uses).

[11] Id.

[12] Ed Hunt, Listening to Salmon, Tidepool.org (Nov. 14, 2012, 6:15 PM), www.tidepool.org/hp/hpsalmonnation.cfm.

[13] J. Heifield and R. Nalman, Keystone Interactions: Salmon and Bear in Riparian Forests of Alaska, 9(2) Ecosystems 167 (2006), See also, Mary F. Wilson, Scott M. Grende, and Brian H. Marston, Fishes and the Forest, 48(6) Bioscientist 455 (1998).

[14] Id.

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