User:Sarah.Logan55/Chinook salmon

Article Draft

For my peer reviewer: here's the article I am editing Chinook salmon and im working on adding a section of more recent data since the article is very out of date. Im also adding more to the cultural aspects section since there isn't much included on the article.

Add section :Recent Data-

Since the later 1970s, the size and age range of Chinook salmon has been declining. Studies along the Northwest pacific coast from Alaska to California during the years of 1977 to 2015 have examined about 1.5 million Chinook salmon, and have seen declining trends in age and size. Ocean-5 Chinook, which means the fish has spent five years in the ocean, have declined from up to 3-5% of the population, to being almost nothing. Ocean-4 chinook are also seeing a rapid decline in their population as well. What this means is that Chinook are not living as long as they used to. This trend has mostly been seen in Alaska, but also Oregon and Washington.

There is also new trends that have been seen regarding the size of Ocean-1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 from 1975 to 2015. The size of Chinook who have spent one and two years in the ocean has been rising, while the size of Chinook of three to five years has been declining. Though it should be noted that the size increase was seen mainly in hatchery fish, not wild, and that hatchery fish were often larger than wild, but the decrease was seen in both types of populations. There are factors that have been discovered that have influenced the size of the Chinook. This includes, but not limited to, the years they spent in freshwater before migrating to the ocean, the time of year they were caught, what season run they participated in, and where they were caught. However, what is causing these negative trends is still not fully known or researched. Some possibilities can be climate change, pollution, and fishing practices.

Juvenile Chinook salmon being measured for research

In California specifically, Chinook populations in the rivers have been on a decline. Chinook that are migratory are already more vulnerable, and the California drought made them even more vulnerable. A study was done specifically on the California Delta over three years and it was discovered that the Chinook salmon had a low survival rate for different reasons, and as a result the Chinook salmon population here has been on a decline. Some of the factors affecting the populations include the route used during migration, drought conditions, the amount of snowmelt, and infrastructure that affects the flow of water (like dams and levees). Each of these factors has played a significant impact on Chinook survival rates as most have made it more challenging for Chinook to travel from their home, to the ocean and back. The fluctuation of water depth as well as temperature has made this more challenging, and as a result Chinook populations or declining. The rivers or streams the Chinook are in highly impact their survival rates, as some like the Chinook in the Fraser river only have a 30% survival rate. More studies and actions are needed to make an impact on the survival rates of the Chinook. Due to many of these reasons The National Wildlife Federation has listed Chinook populations as endangered or threatened.

Edit section: Cultural Aspects-

Add into first paragraph on page- For tribes on the Northwest coast, Salmon were an important part of their culture, for spiritual reasons and for food. The relation to salmon for the tribes in this area are similar to how other tribes relied more on buffalo for food, and have many legends and a spiritual ties to them.

In Oregon, the Klamath tribes have lived along the Klamath river and the Chinook salmon have been a large part of their lives. An Indian legend of a tribe on the Klamath river describes how the construction of the dam has hurt the fish population and that the impact on them has gone unnoticed, and the destruction of the dam is what has brought back their food supply and made them happy again. The Klamath tribe had a similar legend that has illustrated the importance of not messing up the Chinook salmon migration. The legend described three Skookums which can be related to the three Dams on the Klamath river in California. It has been known that the creation of dams has negatively impacted the lives of many Native American Indians by disrupting their food supply and flow of water. The impact of the salmon migration has been seen by not only tribal members but others as well and as a result progress is slowly being made to help restore the salmon habitats along the river It has been known that for many tribes Chinook salmon have played an important role, spiritually and physically.

Other tribes including the Nuxalk, Kwakiutl, and Kyuquot relied primarily on Chinook to eat. The men of the tribes were primarily the fishers and used many techniques to catch the fish, but mostly used nets and traps. Women and children were primarily the ones cooing and preparing the fish. Some tribes used trolling techniques from their canoes where they would then have their line with a weight (rock), hook (made from bone), and their bait at a specific depth to catch Chinook. The most common way that Chinook were cooked was over a fire, but different tribes used different variations. A popular cooking technique was to smoke the salmon with different seasonings, but many times tribes ate the salmon fresh. Maple leaves, and salal leaves are a couple examples of what tribal members would use to season the salmon. Some techniques used allowed the oil from the salmon to be extracted and saved for other uses. Unlike other salmon breeds, the eggs from the Chinook salmon were considered poisonous, and therefore were not consumed or used in other dishes. The cooking of Chinook varies between tribes due to different beliefs. Certain tribes would not ferment or consume the chinook a different day, and would eat only the salmon caught that day. Meanwhile other tribes boiled, barbecued, canned, dried, filleted, or had to cut the salmon a certain way Cutting the chinook along the neck was a very common practice among tribes.