Just What is a Steelhead?

[greenghost]

The situation is complex. To put it in its simplest form, environmental damage to the river systems coupled with low ocean survival rates has conspired against Pacific Northwest steelhead. Neither cause has a simple fix.

Little is understood about steelhead once they leave the river system so the cause of the low ocean survival rate is not fully understood. As far as the river systems themselves I don't think we as a society will do what it takes to repair the damage done to them. I don't see the large hydro electric dams being removed anytime soon. We do as little as possible limiting logging in the watersheds. Many of the river's lower sections are diked to the point of being channelized waterways with no sloughs, side channels or flood plain. All of which are necessary for fish survival. The land the rivers would spread out on is now covered with houses, shopping malls and farms which all contribute their share of pollutants to the river. The fish runs themselves have been exploited by commercial fishing to the point of collapse. I could go on and on but I think you understand what I am saying.

My home river, the Skagit, has been estimated to have had as many as 40,000 steelhead return to it annually. 40,000! Last year the estimated return of wild steelhead was less than 4,000 fish. That is just steelhead. The Skagit has all 5 Pacific salmon in it and all but the pink salmon run has totally collapsed. Truly a sad state of affairs. We have, in less than 100 years, destroyed one of the world's greatest migrations.

Unfortunately,the west coast doesn't have the monopoly on any of the problems you cite,the plight of Atlantic Salmon is a mirror image of that of the PNW steelhead here in the east,and you can add native fishing "rights" into the mix that were upheld in the SCC v. Marshall decision and based on antiquated,250 year old,pre-conservation era treaties,along with the illegal introduction of smallmouth bass into countless native brook trout and salmon watersheds as two of the greatest threats facing salmo salar in NB and NS.The Miramichi River,arguably the best Atlantic salmon angling river in Canada,and the most productive salmon nursery in the world in terms of sheer numbers of fish produced,has been reduced to app. 100,000 fish give or take running it's main stem and tribs annually,down from an estmated 1 million+ only 3-4 decades ago.Bay of Fundy salmon,a unique strain that spend their at seas lives in the Bay of Fundy/Gulf of Maine instead of migrating to Greenland have been all but extirpated from dozens of historical streams,with ALL BoF rivers having been closed to angling since the early 90's.Commercial overfishing,incidental bycatch mortality,and disease,parasites,and sea lice from intense aquaculture in the Bay are the main culprits there.