Unfavorable ocean conditions likely cause of low 2007 salmon returns along ...( NOAA scientists are reviewing unusua...)

NOAA scientists are reviewing unusual environmental conditions in the Pacific Ocean as the likely culprit for the dramatically low returns of Chinook and coho salmon to rivers and streams along the West Coast of the United States in 2007.

Researchers from NOAAs Northwest and Southwest Fisheries Science Centers are comparing data on the low food production of the California Current in 2005 that occurred when this years returning salmon would have been entering the ocean from their natal streams to feed and grow.

The cold waters of the California Current flow southward from the northern Pacific along the West Coast and are associated with upwelling, an ocean condition caused by winds that bring nutrients to the oceans surface and is the main source of nourishment for the oceans food web. In 2005 a southward shift in the jet stream, delayed favorable winds and upwelling for the California Current, which normally begins in spring. The winds instead arrived in mid-July, causing high surface water temperatures and very low nutrient production within the nearshore marine ecosystem.

We are not dismissing other potential causes for this years low salmon returns, said Usha Varanasi, NOAA Fisheries Service Science Center Director for the Northwest Region. But the widespread pattern of low returns along the West Coast for two species of salmon indicates an environmental anomaly occurred in the California Current in 2005.

Data released Thursday by the Pacific Fisheries Management Council indicate the 2007 returns of fall Chinook salmon to the Sacramento River in Californias Central Valley were approximately 33 percent of what fishery biologists expected. Projections for 2008 are substantially lower than last years estimate. [http://www.pcouncil.org/newsreleases/Feb_2008_Sacramento_News_Release.pdf]

Coho salmon returning to spawning streams in
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