Washington conservation group proposes listing Alaska king salmon under Endangered Species Act
The Wild Fish Conservancy says the chinook are threatened by climate change and competition from hatchery-raised fish.
alaskapublic.org
I will be the first to APPLAUD this petition-filing for the BOLD stance it takes for sorely-needed and long-overdue chinook conservation in Alaska. The real question is WHY it hasn't happened sooner. However, I must critically point out that the ESA doesn't quite work like this. The label "Southern Alaska king salmon" describing all Alaska-origin chinook rearing in the Gulf of Alaska is WAY too big and WAY too diverse for a legitimate ESA listing. It's been said that the proper way to eat an elephant is ONE bite at a time. Similarly, Alaska's diverse chinook populations have to be addressed in manageable bites.
The proper way to go about this is to list SPECIFIC populations sharing similar geo-hydromorphology to which they have adapted. This means they are also reproductively and genetically isolated from other such DISTINCT populations. In the ESA world, these constitute what is termed Distinct Population Segments (DPS's). In the fish world in particular, they are more commonly referred to as ESU's (Evolutionarily Significant Units). This is the most sensible way to identify specific populations in crisis and begin to craft management plans specifically directed at their recovery.
It ain't rocket science. Let's start at the Far West and work our way south and east along the entire Alaska coastline to begin designating distinct chinook runs that more reasonably satisfy these criteria. How about these for starters:
1) Norton Sound chinook; Unalakleet River
2) Yukon chinook; this could be parsed up further
3) Kuskokwim chinook; this could be parsed up further
4) Bristol Bay chinook; Togiak, Nushagak, Kvichak Bays
5) Kodiak Island chinook
6) Lower Cook Inlet chinook; Stariski, Anchor, Deep Creek, Niniichik
7) Kenai-Kasilof chinook
8) Upper Cook Inlet chinook; Theodore, Chuitna, Little Su
9) Susitna River chinook; this could be parsed up further
10) Copper River chinook; Tonsina, Klutina,Gulkana
11) Southeast Alaska chinook, other NON-transboundary
12) Transboundary chinook. Alsek, Taku, Stikine, Unuk (shared with Canada)
No one... and I mean NO ONE... in the Alaska salmon management world ( either state or federal) has had the common sense (let alone the motivation and insight ) to have already parsed Alaska's extremely diverse chinook populations into legitimate federally-recognized ESU's. I find ADFG top-dog Doug Vincent Lang's careless comments about endangered chinook particularly troubling... GEE, are they really in danger? YGTBFKM, right? JFC... an archaic ADFG still insists on calling these fish by their colloquial "king salmon" moniker in all of their official documents rather than the scientifically accepted "chinook salmon" used by the rest of the planet.
This formal petition by WFC will undoubtedly serve as a catalyst to properly identifying and assigning these various ESU's at the federal level. I’m raising my Boulevardier glass high to say, “Good job, WFC…. GOOD JOB!”
Welcome to the ESA, Alaska... better late than never!
