Mountain wilderness, spawning salmon, and bears. Great big brown bears! This is the imagery of the Pacific Northwest, a wild and beautiful corner of the world blessed with rich waterways, towering mountain ranges and dense old-growth forests. The vast Pacific Ocean pounds long stretches of rugged, windswept Oregon and Washington State coastline, heavy clouds dumping their loads as they collide into the Cascade and Olympic mountains. Peaceful waterways run through densely forested passages of Puget Sound, the Strait of Juan de Fuca and Georgia Strait. Remote islands thrive within the Inside Passage of British Columbia and the Alaskan panhandle, protected from mighty ocean forces out wide. River systems spring from glaciated peaks and cut their way through lush temperate rainforests where majestic Douglass fir, hemlock and cedar giants reign.
Life in the Northwest has always revolved around the movement of salmon. Huge numbers of salmon sustained large populations of Native Americans with flourishing cultures, sophisticated social structures and advanced technical knowledge. Their elaborate art, skillfully expressed in carvings, totem poles, and in the impressive formwork of civic architecture, reflects the natural beauty of the land and the fundamental role in life of salmon, and animals that depend on salmon. Like the original inhabitants, modern North-Westerners are proud and protective of their natural heritage. Conservation and the environment are big priorities for people who appreciate their scenic surroundings and enjoy outdoor activities and fresh seafood. They are quick to mobilize against environmental concerns, armed with science, technology, and great zeal. Greenpeace itself was founded here in Vancouver in the 1970s.
Salmon remain a central focus of passions in the Northwest. Like the Atlantic salmon, species of Pacific salmon are seriously endangered in certain ranges. Despite efforts in managing fishing pressure, stocks of Coho and Chinook have recently collapsed across much of California, Oregon and parts of Washington State. Commercial and recreational fisheries in these areas have been closed indefinitely. The extent and the suddenness of the collapse, particularly for Chinook in the Sacramento River, is serious cause for concern, especially for viable fisheries further north as the reasons for it are still not understood. Overfishing, irrigation methods, dams, disease and natural cycles have been put forward as possible causes. However, it is very hard to separate the collapse of this fishery from fishery collapses elsewhere in the world as there is certainly one common aspect to them, and that is an unsustainable amount of fishing pressure worldwide. Pacific salmon stocks in much of the Northwest are declining for this very reason.
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Seafood Trails 