Chinook to Orcas Pt 1

I'm Bob Larson. The plight of salmon, specifically Kings, or Chinook Salmon, has been media fodder for decades, but more so in recent years. And during that time, farmers have taken a lot of the heat for creating the problem by drawing down or polluting the streams the salmon migrate to every year.

But, contrary to popular opinion, Save Family Farming director Gerald Baron says it's a problem farmers truly care about...

BARON ... "The problems with the decline of the Chinook salmon, compared to all the other species, has gotten quite a bit of attention lately particularly because of the plight of the Salish Sea or the San Juan Island's pods of Killer Whales."

From there, Baron says that's where the media attention has missed the mark ...

BARON ... "There's been a number of stories about how they are starving because they are not getting the mature, adult Chinook that they need. And so, that tends to raise the pressure on habitat, instream flow, you know, the whole Foster decision, the whole Hirst decision that occupied the legislature really had to do with maintaining flows in our streams."

The real problem, Baron says is much more complicated ...

BARON ... "The reason this is so important is because this shows that the fundamental issue affecting Chinook recovery is not habitat, not water, it's not instream flows, it's none of those things. It is the explosion of Harbor Seals, particularly in the Salish Sea."

Listen tomorrow for more on the unintended consequences of the salmon recovery and how Save Family Farming wants to help refocus efforts to fix the problem.