Oftentimes we mock obscure scientific studies as fraudulent, foolish, or futile. But the reality is, much comes from studying the world around us. Case in point, the Pacific Ocean Shelf Tracking Network.
Using ever teenier and tinier transmitters, marine scientists are getting a much better understanding of the life cycles of salmon, sturgeon, trout, rockfish, and a slew of other crucial fish species. The tiny transmitters are inserted into baby fish and the network then tracks the fish pings as they grow and go through their aquatic life cycle.
All ready important data has emerged, as well as new theories on the changes in migrations due to ocean warming.
• Previously, it was thought that the highest mortality rates for salmon were in the freshwater streams and rivers as they headed to the saltwater ocean. But using the acoustic tracking system, researchers found that within the first few weeks of entering the ocean, 40 percent of the salmon died. Meanwhile, billions of dollars have been spent to increase in-river survival rates of salmon through projects such as habitat improvements in spawning areas and the modification of hydroelectric dams.
• A study by Welch, which has touched off a major scientific debate, found dams may have less of an impact on salmon survival rates than previously thought. The study found juvenile salmon from the Columbia River, with its string of massive hydroelectric dams, survived their downstream migration equally or better than those migrating downstream in the dam-free Fraser River in British Columbia. Some environmentalists have insisted the only way to restore the Columbia River runs is by breaching four dams on the lower Snake River, a major tributary of the Columbia.
• It’s long been thought green sturgeon from the Sacramento and Klamath rivers in California migrated into the ocean but didn’t go far. Now, using the acoustic tracking system, the green sturgeon have been found congregating off the north end of Vancouver Island at certain times of the year and then heading into the North Pacific. They’ve also been found in Puget Sound.
Eventually, the Census for Marine Life hopes to establish a global Ocean Tracking Network, or OTN, that would cover 14 areas in the Pacific, Atlantic, Indian and Arctic oceans, along with the Mediterranean Sea.
Efforts to establish such networks are already under way in eastern Canada, South Africa and Australia. In Australia and South Africa, the networks could also be used to alert authorities when sharks are near swimming beaches.
Kokanee Salmon Fall Spawning Run courtesy of Utah~Dave AA7IZ
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Ah come on. Who really needs to know anything about some stupid fish anyway. Either they are good to eat or not. If they are there – catch them all and eat them, and if they aren’t, well then find something else to eat.
Anyway, all that water in rivers is just going to waste anyway.
*g*
That title is cracking me up
Gee all this information sounds good but…. What can be done to sustain the Fisheries?? We need them as an important source of quality food. Wild caught fish are far better for you than the farm raised type, you avoid all the additives from the man manufactured food they farmed ones eat..
If the most dangerous place for Salmon I would like to know why. This also seems to point to the loss of krill in the ocean is the real culprit as to why the Salmon have dropped off so precipitously theses last few years… Global warming and the changing up welling of the cold Pacific currents off the coast?
Perhaps if we immediately stopped putting foreign substances into the water? Seriously, paving the world has had a terrible effect on the water quality as has the dumping of every conceivable thing into the Ocean. I am old enough and have done enough sailing to be shocked at the degradation in the Caribbean. The extent of the coral die off has to be seen to be believed. Superimposing old aerial photos can give some idea, but it really takes a sail around the Bahamas to appreciate or to be truly aggrieved by the magnitude of it.
Thank the goddess that we didn’t breach the dams! As it is, the Right will hardly let us hear the end of this!
Has anyone watched “Whale Wars”? It is worth viewing if you
hatedespisescumwhalers. i have also kind of enjoyed the newbies (Almost everybody) getting terribly seasick when they got into the stormy waters. It really makes me wish I was in good enough health to participate.Thanks for this Elliot, it is so important for all of us to keep up with the latest info on what is going on in our Marine world. We need to do something serious about our oceans or we will all be in big trouble.