Steve Paszek’s letter made good sense (“Removing dams doesn’t make sense,” Our Readers’ Views, May 15). There is a bigger gorilla in the room when talking about predator fish like salmon and tuna. Overfishing for the last 40-plus years has decimated the population of these species. Concern about too few fish getting to spawning areas gets lost in arguments over disruption of the fish’s path, not the lack of fish returning.
Common sense points to overfishing causing salmon decline. Salmon populations cannot support year-over-year increases in fishing tonnages. The ocean stock is declining. That is clear. The few fish migrating to the spawning areas must run the gauntlet of fisherman and obstacles.
The gorilla in the room is whether sports fishermen, tribes, and national and international commercial fishing companies are willing to sacrifice their interests and agree to stop all fishing to allow nature time to grow back the salmon ocean population to a healthy level. Is the answer no? Economics and pleasure seem to be driving forces.
Funny, those who have the most to lose may not see the road to long-term growth and healthy fish levels curtailing fishing for three to five years. After all, nobody will die from not having salmon (or tuna) fishing.
