Tippets: Saving California’s Salmon, Travels of Dorado, The Colorado River’s Drought, Snake River Sockeye

January 20, 2016 By: Erin Block

  • A recent article in The New York Times examines the history and present workings of hatcheries. Dr. John Carlos Garza, a geneticist working to save California’s threatened salmon populations, wrote critically about the role of hatcheries in a recent report. “It’s an extinction vortex,” Dr. Garza said, “where inbreeding accelerates the process of decline.”
  • A dorado tagged and released on December 13 off Cabo San Lucas, Mexico was recaptured nineteen days later 500 miles south. The tagging project by Gray Fishtag Research hopes to use the research findings to persuade Mexico to enforce the commercial fishing ban on this sportfishing-only species.
  • Since 2000, the Colorado River Basin has been experiencing historic, extended drought conditions. A new interactive website from the Department of the Interior explains the drought’s long-lasting effects.
  • A hot summer and low water flows devastated Snake River sockeye populations, with around 90 percent of Snake River sockeye dying before they reached Ice Harbor Dam. Read more via Northwest Public Radio.