In California the Pacific Fishery Management Council has banned the recreational and commercial fishing of King salmon. California officials are now asking for federal disaster aid for the fishers affected by this ban. Since the ban is necessary to the environment but also impacts the fishing economy greatly compensation is in order. The projected loss for the 2023 salmon season is $45 million.
This is a very relevant to environmental science because it shows the direct connection between environmental science and many real life issues. The suistanability of the salmo fishing is extremly important to our planet because we are simply running out of salmon but the economics of that fishery are also extremely important and this reach out to the federal government of disaster compensation is a possible, temporary, solution to this issue.
Watson, Julie, and Lisa Baumann. “California Seeks Federal Help for Salmon Fishers Facing Ban.” AP News, AP News, 7 Apr. 2023, apnews.com/article/salmon-fishing-ban-chinook-west-coast-fd818fb1489834d5f8f9371818178b11.
I agree that the sustainability of salmon fishing is important because their presence is very important to the function of their ecosystems. This does bring up an issue though because the economics of the fishery should also be taken into account. How do you think these things should be best balanced?
Hi and thank you for your comment. I’m honestly not super sure of an exact solution for this issue because the economics of specifically the salmon issue is important but it’s important to remember that if we don’t do anything about this issue soon enough the salmon fishery industry will disappear simply because there are no salmon.,
This is so interesting and I love your take on this! I think this definitely plays into the cost vs benefit problem, because while we are repopulating salmon, we are losing money. Do you know if there is any ideas the Pacific Fishery Management Council currently has to weigh these two sides?
Hello and thank you for reading, I did some research on the Pacific Fishery Management Council and as of right now, the only thing they claim about their actual management of the salmon population is just the repeated use of the word “managing” so it is very unclear what they are actually doing.
The conservation of salmon is highly important. Their an essential species and they are also they most harvested by fisheries. Fisheries catch millions of salmon per year greatly damaging their population, and many times the methods of catching salmon are extremely unethical. While many fisheries will come to be harmed by this. Many catch a wide variety of other fish, so they have the potential to recover, but we are losing salmon at a rapid rate and if they continue to be caught there will be none left.
Hi thank you for reading and commenting I really agree with your take on this and I think we have to put fish above economics.