Here are my Tweets from today's State of the Salmon 2009 conference sessions, in last-to-first order:
Fedorenko: Pacific Rim nations release 5 billion hatchery salmon/year.
Fedorenko: Total value of Pacific Rim commercial salmon catch $1 billion/year.
Beechie: Dams are the big story in extirpation of salmon in US lower 48, along with development.
Irvine: 50% or more of all BC salmon species are red/amber status (ie not good) in conservation units.
Irvine: In Canada general catch declines for all salmon species, 2008 one of lowest years.
Disappointed that reports from different countries are measuring different things so can't compare.
Hilsinger: Alaska salmon catches for all species have been good in last thirty years.
Radchenko: Russia releasing over half a billion hatchery salmon into Pacific annually.
Radchenko: Russian sockeye and chum catches are way up in the last ten years.
Kang: Korean salmon returns in 2000s fell to a third of returns in 1990s -- also warming?
Nagata: Focus on biodiversity of wild salmon and restoration of freshwater environments.
Nagata: Japan chum returns have fallen dramatically in south, more stable in north (Hokkaido) - warming?
Nagata: Japan stocking hundreds of millions of chum and pink fry.
Vladimir Belyaev: Important to improve national and international reporting to set reserves for salmon.
Vladimir Belyaev: Protecting entire watersheds is crucial to protecting salmon.
Vladimir Belyaev: Ocean survivability is moot if we don't protect spawning habitat -- rivers, estuaries.
Vladimir Belyaev: Russia is looking at setting up protected areas for salmon.
David Anderson: Concerned that Canada will fall behind US under Obama on climate change.
David Anderson: Major uncertainties about the impact of hatchery fish on ocean survival of wild stocks.
David Anderson: Strong opposition to change. People understand existing systems and fear the unknown.
David Anderson: The dead hand of the past protects the status quo.
Nathan Mantua: Humans are the primary drivers of change in salmon ecosystems.
Looking at Ecology and Society journal website: http://www.ecologyandsociety
Resilience Alliance http://www.resalliance.org/
David Suzuki -- World Scientists' Warning to Humanity, back in 1992 - http://deoxy.org/sciwarn.htm.
Suzuki: State of Salmon -- we invented the economy, we gotta change it.
Suzuki: State of Salmon -- all that humans can do is manage themselves, not other animals.
Suzuki: The most important lesson we have is the extent of our ignorance.
Suzuki: The future of salmon is bleak as long as politics and economics are the major drivers.
Guido Rahr fate of salmon will be determined in our lifetimes.
First Nations start by pointing out that side channels and creeks in the lower mainland are being destroyed.