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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Sportsmen should make climate change hot topic

Rich Landers The Spokesman-Review

Scientists honestly don’t know whether lower-than-expected returns of spring chinook salmon to the Columbia River are a harbinger for other salmon runs.

Ocean chinook catches out of Westport’s charterboat fleet have been improving after a slow start a few weeks ago. Book a trip and you’re almost sure to hook an incomparable Northwest ocean-fresh meal. Why worry?

Some of the world’s top scientists say it’s long past time for fish managers and anglers to look beyond this season, or even the next decade of seasons.

The reasons are all around us.

In Southern Oregon, fishermen are alarmed by the unexpected dramatic decline in the spring chinook salmon returning to the Rogue River.

Disease and overfishing don’t appear to have played a role in the low returns. Some scientists have proposed that global warming and a shift in ocean conditions could be to blame.

Even at Alaskan fishing hot spots such as Sitka, anglers say they are working harder to catch their salmon.

Of course, anglers aren’t the only ones affected by the trend.

Ducks, geese and other migratory waterfowl face substantial population declines in North America this century from a warmer climate and shrinking wetlands habitat caused by global warming, according to scientific research presented in a new National Wildlife Federation report.

One startling finding by top North America waterfowl experts suggests that global warming could reduce wetland habitat in the Prairie Pothole Region by up to 91 percent by 2080.

A decline in duck breeding pairs could range from 9 to 69 percent, the research shows. That’s a broad range, but it illustrates the stakes are high even though we’re not sure about the odds.

Most climate scientists around the world point to carbon pollution as a significant contributor to global warming. Rush Limbaugh and a few top U.S. government leaders disagree, but at least in this one critical case, sportsmen and the billions of people who live on coastlines might want to listen instead to the scientific majority.

In the last 100 years, global temperature rose by an average of 1 degree Fahrenheit, but in places such as Alaska, the change has been a more dramatic rise of 5-7 degrees.

Arctic sea ice has lost thickness, melted faster in spring and re-formed later in fall, according to the international Arctic Climate Impact Assessment. Vast stretches near Alaska have become ice-free during the last three summers, setting a record in 2003 and a near record in 2004 for least coverage measured.

Thick multi-year ice that is essential to the survival of polar bears has been shrinking 8-10 percent a decade.

That’s really bad news for polar bears, and perhaps another symptom of bad things to come for fisheries.

So what can anglers do about an issue of such daunting global proportions?

Numerous inquiries finally led me this week to one of North America’s leading experts in the study of Pacific salmon and their relationship to climate.

“The fact that people are even asking that question is a huge step forward,” said Dick Beamish, a distinguished senior scientist for the Canada Department of Fisheries and Oceans in Nanaimo.

“Unfortunately, scientists have said that what we’ve put into motion with greenhouse gases in the atmosphere will affect our climate for decades, even if we stopped those emissions tomorrow.

“But we’re not stopping tomorrow, and the major concern is that humans are underestimating the impacts and actually increasing our effect.”

All over the world, people are beginning to address the adjustments necessary to cope with rising sea levels, changing river flows and the effect of climate change on crops, Beamish said.

“This is something fisheries management has to start considering, too.

“Only in the past decade have fisheries managers really started to understand how important climate is to fisheries. The tendency has been to cite weather as a cause for changing ocean conditions that affect salmon, rather than attributing the change to a persistent and possibly forecastable trend in the climate.”

There’s no silver bullet to quickly dispatch the ills affecting our climate, scientists say.

But they all suggest we take a shot at living a more sustainable lifestyle. Anglers in particular need to become stewards of water from the mountains to the ocean.

Support the wilderness and roadless areas that protect the quality of water where fish spawn.

Scrutinize every dam and water withdrawal.

Uphold the Clean Water Act and Farm Bill water quality protections and expand other programs that encourage protection and restoration of wetlands.

Enact policies that limit the nation’s global warming pollution, protect and enhance forests, grasslands and other natural systems that absorb and store carbon; accelerate deployment of renewable energy technologies.

Promote energy efficiency, in your own lifestyle and elsewhere.

Stop pretending that our descendents won’t have to pay dearly for our excesses.

We will take a huge step forward in addressing global warming if we simply stop losing ground.

•A wild Alaska salmon barbecue and fund-raiser for Save Our Wild Salmon is scheduled tonight, 6 p.m., at the Community Building, 35 W. Main. Suggested donation, $20. RSVP, 747-2030.