A salmon tale from long ago but not far away

At the end of their arduous trek across the country, Lewis and Clark were sitting around their campfire with the roar of the surf of the Pacific in the background when Lewis said, “I’ve been thinking.”

Clark replied, “Not again. What are you thinking about this time?”

“Well” Lewis said, “I’ve been thinking about these remarkable fish, the salmon. They are beautiful and good to eat. And they regularly come into the rivers from the ocean. Then they are so easy to catch. They swim from the ocean up to tiny streams where they started life, dig their eggs into the gravel and then die, providing nourishment for everything that lives nearby. When the eggs hatch the little fish make their way back to the ocean to start the cycle all over. Incredible, aren’t they?”

Clark then said, “Yeah, yeah, they’ve been here doing that forever and providing food for the natives and all kinds of animals in the process, so what’s your point?”

“Well,” Lewis continued, “let’s just see what it would take to annihilate them. We could catch far more than we should. Then we could dam up the rivers so they couldn’t get to their spawning grounds. We could build roads and put in culverts in any streams they cross to further prevent the fish from getting to their spawning streams. But if any still did get to the spawning grounds we could cut all the nearby vegetation so the sun would make the water too warm for eggs and little fish to survive.

“Also, without vegetation, rain would wash silt into the streams and smother the eggs. We could plant crops near the streams and use fertilizers and pesticides which would wash into the water to kill any young fish that might remain. Additionally, we could prevent control of all predators on salmon such as whales, seals, sea lions, otters, cormorants, gulls, terns and mergansers. We could even somehow make the ocean warmer so it wouldn’t produce as much food for the salmon to eat out there. Before long there would be no more salmon.”

Clark replied, “That’s just crazy talk. People and salmon have always survived together. How could any of what you say actually happen?”

Lewis responded, “Just wait and see. You think we are the only non-natives who will come out here? Whites will come in droves and when they do everything I just described will happen. There will come a time when no one will have ever seen a live wild salmon. Then, in a couple more generations, salmon will be totally forgotten.”