With Chinook continuing to slide toward extinction, tribes of the Skagit Valley say more than ever, Seattle needs to stop blocking salmon with its Skagit River dams.
||| FROM KING-TV SEATTLE |||
SKAGIT COUNTY, Wash. — The population of summer-fall Chinook salmon expected this year on Washington’s Skagit River will be the lowest in nearly 15 years, dealing another devastating blow to Native American tribes whose culture and subsistence have depended on the fish for millennia.
The grim forecast means the Sauk-Suiattle Indian Tribe will be permitted to harvest just 24 wild Chinook salmon this season — a stark contrast to the abundance their ancestors once knew.
A Species in Crisis
Chinook salmon, also known as king salmon, form the bedrock of coastal Salish tribes’ spiritual practices, subsistence and cultural identity. The species has been struggling for years, prompting the federal government to list Skagit Chinook on the Endangered Species List in 1999.
While tribes saw some improved years following that designation, this summer/fall predicted return represents the worst since 2011, according to data collected by the Washington State Dept. of Fish and Wildlife and tribal natural resource departments.
“Right now we’re in dire straits. It doesn’t get much worse than this,” said Scott Schuyler, policy representative for Natural and Cultural Resource Department of the Upper Skagit Indian Tribe. “The writing’s on the wall. We need to do something different.”
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