On March 26,
2015 our marine ecology class visited the UC Davis Bodega Marine Lab (BML) in
Bodega Bay, CA. Not only was this a great opportunity to learn about research
opportunities available to California students but also to get insight into a
research facility of my dream school. After graduating from Sonoma State, I
hope to move on to attend veterinary school at UC Davis. It is the top
veterinary school in the nation but with hard work I am hoping I can make the
cut. While on the tour of BML, I asked our tour guide if there were any
veterinary students doing research there since I have an interest in the marine
field of veterinary science. I was surprised to learn that there actually are
some students from the UC Davis Veterinary School that are working out at the
BML researching salmon. After doing a little research on the internet, I was
able to discover that there is a whole program of BML dedicated to the study of
salmon so I thought that would be an appropriate topic to expand on.
Salmon are a
symbolic fish of the Pacific Northwest and the Pacific salmon have a strong
reliance on high-quality freshwater and marine conditions in order for their
survival. When the salmon population dropped to historic low levels, the
researchers of BML took it upon themselves to research the salmon and try to
reverse the declining rate. The team has studied “the winter-run Chinook salmon
(Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) in the Sacramento River and coho salmon
(Oncorhynchus kisutch) along the central California coast” which are both
endangered according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
Endangered and Threatened Marine Species under NMFS' Jurisdiction list (1, 2).
The BML
anadromous fish research facilities are home to the salmon research and have
been approved by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), NOAA Fisheries,
and California Department of Fish and Game (CDFG) for work with endangered
species. The facility has various sized tanks that include “state-of-the-art
computer-monitored salt and fresh water flow-through systems” (3). These facilities
are able to house the salmon in healthy, stable conditions while the
researchers study them but because of an increase in the winter-run Chinook
salmon, the BML had to stop their captive bloodstock program in 2004 and are currently
have no research happening however between 1988 and 2005 the program has
produced 200 publications on salmon ecology and research.
Although
there is not any current research too look at within the last 10 years, NOAA
produced a report in 2005, after declaring the coho salmon of the central
California coast to be endangered, that is a final draft of the coho salmon
recovery plan.
 |
| Figure From The NAOO Coho Salmon Recovery Plan |
The plan estimated that it could take 50 to 100 years and cost roughly $1.5 billion to recover the salmon California coho salmon but because of the economical benefits the salmon have brought to California throughout history it would be worth the cost. The overall goal of the plan is to prevent the extinction of and “ensure their long-term persistence towards a viable, self-sustaining, and eventually harvestable status”(4). Because the salmon levels are so extremely low and the factor of dealing with the both marine conditions as well as terrestrial conditions parallel to the river spawning locations the recovery is not an easy task but definitely a very important one. It is going to take a lot of work and research to determine how to bring back this population so anyone with a strong desire for fish and marine ecology should look into potentially researching this species.
References
1. http://bml.ucdavis.edu/research/research-programs/ecology-evolution-conservation/salmon-research/
2. http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/pr/species/esa/listed.htm#fish
3. http://bml.ucdavis.edu/facilities/anadromous-fish-research-facilities/
4. http://www.westcoast.fisheries.noaa.gov/publications/recovery_planning/salmon_steelhead/ domains/north_central_california_coast/central_california_coast_coho/ccc_coho_salmon_esu_recovery_plan_vol_i_sept_2012.pdf
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