{"id":11250,"date":"2021-10-11t17:49:46","date_gmt":"2021-10-11t17:49:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dpetrov.2create.studio\/planet\/wordpress\/as-climate-change-threatens-salmon-and-orca-can-solutions-be-achieved-for-the-trans-boundary-species\/"},"modified":"2023-03-07t19:39:27","modified_gmt":"2023-03-07t19:39:27","slug":"climate-change-pacific-salmon-southern-resident-orca","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"\/\/www.getitdoneaz.com\/story\/climate-change-pacific-salmon-southern-resident-orca\/","title":{"rendered":"as climate change threatens salmon and orca, can solutions be achieved for the trans-boundary species?"},"content":{"rendered":"
by fiona skeggs<\/strong><\/p>\n in june 2021, a heat wave spread over the pacific northwest, from northern california up into british columbia, with people in the region wilting from record high temperatures in excess of 100 degrees fahrenheit and facing greater threats of wildfires. but the threats are soaring for rivers and marine life as well. <\/p>\n rivers in the region saw water temperatures reach levels lethal to salmon, leading to mass die-off of many species already in decline. the decimation continues for one of the most culturally and economically crucial species in the region. <\/p>\n \u201cwe’re going to lose very important runs of salmon in the next 20 years,\u201d said colleen weiler of whale and dolphin conservation. \u201cthey’re just going to be gone because the water is going to be too hot.\u201d<\/p>\n the acute impacts of heat waves on wildlife in the region is severe, and in particular for stocks of pacific salmon. with global air and water temperatures rising due to climate change, the heat wave provides an insight into the long-term effects on these populations. the damage of a mere one degree centigrade of global temperature rise is already evident. the paris agreement, an international treaty on curbing climate change, commits participating countries to rein in temperature rise to 1.5 degrees, and predicts far more catastrophic effects if temperatures rise to 2 degrees. <\/p>\n salmon and climate change <\/strong><\/p>\n the complex biology of salmon means they spend different stages of life in different habitats. juveniles can spend up to three years in freshwater stream systems before making their way to the ocean in the spring. once they reach maturity, the salmon return from the ocean to their birth stream to spawn. in these freshwater streams, the effects of climate change are having the biggest impact and threatening the spawning environments.<\/p>\n \u201cit has a lower heat capacity,\u201d said emmie page of pacific wild. \u201cit’s going to increase the temperature at a greater rate than in comparison to the ocean, so those freshwater juveniles are going to feel that temperature much more.\u201d<\/p>\n andrew trites, of the institute for the oceans and fisheries at the university of british columbia, said these juveniles are often overlooked, and that there is more to the life cycle of salmon than the number of adults. he said the small, juvenile, fish are very important to the food web as lots of species depend on them as a food source. <\/p>\n \u201cit’s very much a human view about fish,\u201d he said. \u201cit’s all about how big of a fish can we catch, and can we catch enough?\u201d<\/p>\n as a cold-water species salmon are sensitive to changes in water temperature, and trites said that to a fish, a degree-and-a-half increase in temperature will have huge impacts. <\/p>\n \u201cit increases their metabolism,\u201d he said. \u201cthey breathe heavier or faster in warmer water, which means that they need to eat more food because their metabolism is ramped up.\u201d<\/p>\n page added that salmon take their biological cues from these seasonal temperature changes.<\/p>\n \u201cthere might not be the correct biological cues for them to migrate at a certain time because of the earlier changes in temperature,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n adult salmon of each species spend different cycles of time in the ocean before migrating back to their birth streams to spawn, page said. the changes in temperature could therefore also impact the timings of the returning mature salmon runs in the autumn months. <\/p>\n trites added that large numbers of pink salmon come back every two years, so the population is regularly replenished. <\/p>\n \u201cthen you’ve got others, like the chinook salmon, which come back somewhere between three, five, and even six years,\u201d he said. \u201cthey\u2019ve got a very complicated life history.\u201d<\/p>\n each species supports different conservation units, and each of these is given a different classification of protection. under the endangered species act, a population at risk of extinction throughout all or a significant portion of its range will be listed as endangered. if a population is considered likely to become endangered in the near future, it will be listed as threatened. <\/p>\n according to the national oceanic and atmospheric administration, none of the alaskan salmon stocks are classified under the act but multiple west coast stocks are. <\/p>\n \u201ci think people kind of lost that awareness of their endangered status and where salmon comes from,\u201d weiler said. <\/p>\n of the five pacific salmon species, pink salmon are most abundant and not listed for protection; and chinook salmon is the most at risk, with two populations listed as endangered and seven as threatened.<\/p>\n this, along with the differences in biological cycle between pacific salmon species, makes imposing protections on salmon difficult and nuanced.<\/p>\n \u201cthey\u2019re the same species as one another,\u201d page said. \u201cbut they have different migration patterns, different home streams, spawning grounds. it’s going to take such a long time to navigate every single conservation unit and what it’s going to look like in a couple years.\u201d<\/p>\n the increasing global temperatures are also impacting annual snowmelt which, in turn, impacts the salmon. <\/p>\n \u201cthe most common thought is that, with the heat, it’s caused early snowmelt,\u201d said page. \u201cby the time it comes for their migration back to their home spawning streams, the water\u2019s going to be way too hot, maybe even almost lethal temperatures for them, and way too shallow and way too dry. to the point where they won’t even be able to swim up those streams.\u201d<\/p>\n trites said salmon populations in the south will likely disappear first, that in addition to the warming water temperatures the added pressure of rivers being dammed is severely impacting the populations. <\/p>\n \u201cwith climate change happening the prognosis for salmon, particularly chinook salmon, is very bad,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n impacts to southern resident orca<\/strong><\/p>\n