After ten years of rapidly intensifying drought and extreme weather, California Governor Gavin Newsom has launched the state’s first strategy to restore and protect populations of salmon for generations to come.
Salmon are described as being central to religions, creation stories, the health and subsistence of California’s Native Tribes, plus a multi-million-dollar fishing industry. However, historic crashing salmon populations led to the Newsom Administration requesting a Federal Fishery Disaster to support impacted communities at the end of 2023, with Tribes having to cancel their religious and cultural harvests for the first time ever
A multitude of factors have led to a decline in salmon populations, from climate change and its impact on ocean temperatures, to drastic alteration of river habitat and flows by dams and water diversions. Specifying six priorities and 71 actions, the state’s new Salmon Strategy aims to:
- Remove barriers and modernise infrastructure for salmon migration
- Restore habitat
- Protect water flows in key rivers at the right times
- Modernise hatcheries
- Transform technology and management systems
- Strengthen partnerships
Relying on strong partnerships with tribal nations, the strategy is described as driving policy and science critical to rebuilding California’s salmon populations, building upon existing partnerships in tribally led restoration work, beaver reintroductions, and returning salmon to their ancestral homes.
Devastating impact on fish
As part of the US government’s efforts to restore wild salmon in the Columbia River Basin, the Department of the Interior released a report documenting the historic, ongoing and cumulative impacts of federal Columbia River dams on Columbia River Basin Tribes. The report also provides recommendations for how the federal government can acknowledge and integrate these impacts in future actions, marking the first time that the US government has comprehensively detailed the harms that federal dams have and continue to inflict on Tribes in the Pacific Northwest.
“Since time immemorial, Tribes along the Columbia River and its tributaries have relied on Pacific salmon, steelhead and other native fish species for sustenance and their cultural and spiritual ways of life. Acknowledging the devastating impact of federal hydropower dams on Tribal communities is essential to our efforts to heal and ensure that salmon are restored to their ancestral waters,” said Secretary of State for the Interior Deb Haaland. “As part of our ongoing commitment to honouring our federal commitments to Tribal Nations, the Interior Department will continue to pursue comprehensive and collaborative basin-wide solutions to restore native fish populations, empower Tribes, and meet the many resilience needs of communities across the region.”
Despite acknowledging that federal dams and reservoirs in the Columbia River Basin have impacted all of the Basin Tribes, a limited timeframe to complete the report necessitated a narrowed scope which is why it only considers eight of those immediately affected. And although the report at times describes situations applicable Basin-wide, for the purpose of its analysis, it only addresses impacts from 11 specific dams from across the basin:
- The four lower Columbia dams (Bonneville, The Dalles, John Day, and McNary).
- The two upper Columbia dams (Chief Joseph and Grand Coulee).
- The four lower Snake dams (Ice Harbor, Lower Monumental, Little Goose, and Lower Granite).
- Dworshak dam, located on the North Fork Clearwater River just upstream of a tributary to the lower Snake River.
Several recommendations are also offered to further the federal government’s responsibility and achieve a healthy and resilient Columbia River Basin for generations to come. These include fully considering and integrating the unique inequities Tribes have suffered as a result of federal dam construction and operation into future National Environmental Policy Act reviews, as well as further pursuing co-stewardship and co-management agreements; continuing efforts to consolidate Tribal homelands; and incorporating indigenous knowledge into decision making.
A Chinese challenge
The impact of dams on global migratory fish stocks is a major challenge and remains seriously underestimated, Zhenli Huang and Haiying Li claim in their study published in Science Advances.
According to the two researchers from the China Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Research, 40 years of Chinese effort to save fish from the verge of extinction on the Yangtze River has failed.
The Yangtze River is the longest river in China and the third longest in the world. It is China’s most abundant water resource, with the highest freshwater fish biodiversity and the largest number of migratory fish species. It is also home to more than 400 species of fish, 22 of which are listed as nationally protected species.
After four decades of implementation, what is collectively known as the Fish Rescue Programmes (FRPs) of the Yangtze dams, has failed to achieve the goal of protecting five flagship fish species – Chinese sturgeon, Chinese paddlefish, Yangtze sturgeon, Chinese sucker, and Coreius guichenoti.
However, the authors claim that the failure of the FRPs provides “a rare opportunity to examine the true impact of dams on migratory fish”.
In their work they propose an analytical tool that includes a framework of fish migration, life cycle models, an impact coefficient, and a simplified population model. After clarifying migration patterns and life cycles, they show that “the Yangtze dams have severely disrupted the life cycle integrity of these species, causing seven types of invalid stocks and their exponential population declines”.
Describing it as a complex issue, Zhenli Huang and Haiying Li say that “China needs to recognise scientific misjudgements to redirect research towards innovation”. They add that it’s also critical for China to learn from four decades of FRPs and focus on reforming its dam-related FRP.
The authors also recommend strengthening the oversight of dam owners to clarify their obligations to protect fish. Th add that international cooperation is urgently needed for China to enhance fish passage and ecological operation technique, helping to address these challenges and share experience in maintaining the balance between fish conservation and dam management.
