The Vancover Sun reports that sockeye salmon in the Fraser River are at their lowest count in 50 years.
"The department [Fisheries and Oceans Canada] warned as long ago as December 2007 that this year’srun would be exceptionally weak, based on a low number of fish -521,000 – that made it back to spawning grounds four years ago to birththis year’s run. . . .
[Paul] Ryall said the department estimatesthis year’s run had a survival rate of only about one per cent from thetime they hatched and migrated down to the ocean, to the time they madetheir way back to the river as adults.
It’s not entirely clearwhat’s causing the survival problem – everything from climate changeand shifting ocean currents to ocean acidification have been consideredpotential culprits." [emphasis ours]
