"'Nightmare' Yurok Salmon Fishery Collapse"

"The number of Chinook salmon predicted to return to the Klamath River on the California-Oregon border this fall fishing season is around 11,000 fish. That is the lowest number in recorded history. Coho salmon is already listed under the Endangered Species Act in California and Oregon.

It’s the most catastrophic fisheries collapse in the river’s history, and promises misery for the four Klamath River fishing tribes. The Yurok Tribe on the coastal and lower river and California’s largest, is reeling.

The tribe’s dependence on the river and its salmon go back hundreds of years. Now they can count on their fingers the number of months they have to prepare for the economic, cultural and social challenges that may stretch far into the future. The unprecedented fisheries collapse is a result of poor ocean health, environmental and river degradation, and a disease that decimated a large percentage of juvenile salmon in the Klamath River."

Terri Hansen reports for Indian Country Today Media Network March 31, 2017.

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