Recent news of improving ocean conditions along the West Coast is a positive signal for wild steelhead and was met with widespread celebration. The early onset of strong upwelling during the most recent spring transition, in addition to other ocean indicators, signals a shift to cooler, more productive conditions associated with better survival of out-migrating juvenile steelhead and salmon. Guy Fleischer, WSC’s Science Advisor, offers insights on how this is definitely encouraging news but cautions that we are far from being totally out of the woods. Fleischer draws a connection to recent research examining how pervasive poor ocean survival can trigger reduced freshwater productivity and how this has implications for our expectations of how quickly depleted wild steelhead populations can recover.
LINK (via WIld Steelhead Coalition)
