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Chinook Salmon
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Chinook Salmon
Environmental Science Wednesday, February 26, 1997 Among the many kinds of fish harvested each year by commercial fisheries is the Oncorhynchus tshawytscha or Chinook salmon. The United States catches an averages of about three hundred million pounds of salmon each year. However some Chinook salmon have been recently listed as threatened. Man has been the main cause for the decline in Chinook salmon populations. The populations of Chinook salmon have declined for several reasons. Hydropower and it's destructiveness to the environment, pollution, and overfishing are the three main causes for the decline. The Chinook salmon is known for traveling the greatest distance back to its spawning grounds, often traveling one to two thousand miles inland. This long journey is now often interrupted by hydroelectric plants. Hydropower is a very good alternative resource for power, however it is very damaging to our salmon populations. The dams block off rivers, which block the salmon's path back to their breeding grounds. The salmon go back to the same areas, just as their ancestors did, to lay their eggs. The hydropower plant's turbines are also very dangerous to young salmon. Many of them are killed by the giant turbines on their way back to the ocean. Killing off many of the salmons new generation. Pollution is also a killer of many Chinook salmon. Pollution caused by sewage, farming, grazing, logging and mining find it's way into...
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