Earth Equity News

West Coast Salmon Finally Get a Break. By Jeff Barnard, AP, September 9, 2008. "A federal oceanographer says a flip-flop in atmospheric conditions is creating a feast for salmon and other sea life off the West Coast, reversing a trend that contributed to a virtual shutdown of West Coast salmon fishing this summer. Bill Peterson of NOAA Fisheries in Newport, Ore., said Tuesday the change in cycle of an atmospheric condition known as the Pacific Decadal Oscillation last fall has brought cold water flows from the Gulf of Alaska, which are carrying an abundance of tiny animals known as copepods that are the foundation of the food chain... Ed Bowles, fisheries chief for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife... was cautious in his assessment. 'Overall, we are seeing more years of poor ocean conditions than we are good,' he said. 'This is a welcome respite in what more typically has been discouraging news.' Bowles added that Columbia River salmon have also benefited from court-ordered increases in the water spilled over hydroelectric dams, which speeds their migration downriver to the ocean and increases the number that survive."