The End of the Golden Age
Bay Area fishing practices might be threatening our valuable connection to the sea.
“With each new loss of species, the food web is affected on a large scale. Ruining the food web not only breaks down ecological stability, but it eliminates our chances of scientific research and the potential benefits we can gain from those species as well.”
"Business is dying. It's not the glory days anymore,” famous Sausalito fisherman Roger Thomas lamented to reporter Alastair Bland.
Fishermen in the California Bay Area are in a precarious situation. The central commercial region, where more than 500 species of ocean creatures and humans interact, is approaching the end of a golden age.
Every year, the species that once boasted high returns from our shining West Coast ocean now follow the path of decline. The Bay Area is famous for recreation, sports fields, and massive housing developments. For humans, it provides commercial spaces and living communities. However, expanding human activity has become a bane for sea creatures. Catastrophes that humans have caused will remain a scar for a long time, perhaps centuries. Various facilities built for social development, such as dams for water supply, drive many sea creatures out of the Bay Area, from huge salmon to young stingrays.
One of the profitable species, the salmon, has been steadily declining for decades.
Congress honored Roger Thomas who devoted his life to save the ecosystem of the San Francisco Bay.
In the early 20th century, fishermen believed the pacific sardine was an everlasting resource. It made sense back then since they pulled an average of 1 million tons of live, fluttering sardines from the sea.
Starting in 2006, however, overfishing has made these huge hauls impossible. 98 percent of the original population of pacific sardines still has yet to recover to its former numbers. Because of the delicate balance of the marine ecosystem, this population deficit influenced the loss of further species. For instance, young marine mammals, which heavily rely on the fish for survival, underwent miserable times, leaving them “emaciated, dehydrated, and malnourished,” federal scientists reported to the marine protection organization, Oceana. This dire situation reveals how the decline of a single species endangers other species that prey on it.
Dungeness crabs, a Bay Area favorite, are also encountering similar challenges. These include habitat loss due to coastal development, environmental changes driven by rising climate temperatures, and overfishing with foolish thoughts that marine resources are endless. With each new loss of species, the food web is affected on a large scale. Ruining the food web not only breaks down ecological stability, but it eliminates our chances of scientific research and the potential benefits we can gain from those species as well.
Green sturgeon, one of the species that influences the abundance of the world’s oceans, is on the edge of its 200 million years of history. From the beginning of the Jurassic period, they untiringly survived with their 70 years of long lifespan, unlike salmon’s 4-year lifespan. This sturgeon is found on the West Coast and California seas and is currently in a “Critically Endangered” condition. It faced a variety of disasters due to the continued construction of dams in the Bay Area, algae blooming, and pressures of overfishing; even though it is strictly prohibited to catch them, some people still hunt it because of its valuable fins and caviars. This illegal practice has made sturgeons more rare, and now 1 kilogram of sturgeon caviar costs up to $10,000.
A fisherman moves a mass of lively Dungeness Crabs caught in the San Francisco Bay to sell on a floating market.
We humans have brought many species, including the green sturgeons, to near extinction. Increasing water temperature and an excessive amount of nutrients create the perfect environment for algae to bloom. Recently, algae, or “the red tides”, have brought intense problems.
The increase in these red tides is influenced by another way that the Bay Area has caused harm through human development: the building of at least 150 dams. You might ask, how do dams bring death to fish? Dams generally cause water to flow slowly, and algae spores love a dam or a lake when a large amount of water is trapped in it. The excess water creates more nutrients for algae. Also, dams are made out of cement, which includes a large amount of calcium carbonate, increasing the pH level of water. Alkaline water ruins the system of cellular membranes of sea creatures. Meanwhile, it produces ideal water quality for algae since they live in alkaline water better than fish do.
In late July 2022, California witnessed a critical red tide occurring from small lakes and spreading to the open bay. Concerning the future generation of sturgeons, Schreier reports, “The fear that sturgeon biologists have right now is that we can’t fully quantify the amount of mortality, we know that hundreds died but it could actually be thousands.” The massive bloom of Heterosigma Akashiwo, a harmful type of algae, raised concerns about the sturgeon.
What else is causing the end of the golden age of the Bay Area fishing industry?
Red tide, a toxin, is spreading throughout the entire Bay Area. Harmful algal blooms become troublesome to fishermen every damp, hot summer.
Every decade, various kinds of diseases silently visit the Bay Area and afflict fish and humans. In the mid-2000s, a serious disease, mycobacteriosis, spread among fish in the Bay Area. This bacterial infection had significant repercussions for local fishermen. Fish that have a weak immune system easily get this illness. It is infected through scrapes and cuts and causes lesions and health problems in fish. While fish suffered from the disease, fishermen and fish farmers experienced economic hardship.
The seafood buyers who were wary of potential health risks and reduced fish quality, responded by decreasing their purchases. This led sellers to lower the price of seafood to sell to those who worry less about the disease. The 2000's, therefore, were the darkest decade for fishermen and the fishing industry. The mixed pressures of declining fish stocks and the economic repercussions compounded the struggles faced by those who depend on fishing for their livelihoods.
Fortunately, some fish may avoid this bacteria, but they can’t swim away from fishermen’s rapacity. Fish that have more complex growth stages can be seriously affected by our misguided fishing practices.
Fishing Vessel Bounty realizes that a salmon’s life cycle is more complicated than other fish since they are born in a river and travel to an ocean. They move to an entirely different environment, from fresh water to seawater, and to fresh water again for spawning. They feel the path they go through and the change in the salt concentration in water. They remember all of them through the experience and instincts engraved in their body for 6 million years to make their own way. However, fishermen farm the young fish, and then carry them to the ocean. Replacement of the egg to the smolt stage, in which stage salmon immigrate to an ocean for the first time, confuses the salmon.
"The way that they know how to get back up to the river is that they came down the river…many of them never entered the river system at all," says Sarah Bates, the captain of Fishing Vessel Bounty, concerning the next generation of salmon. Not knowing where to spawn is a huge problem that may transform the life cycle of salmon.
Sarah Bates, Bay Area fisherwoman, reels up a huge, seasonal chinook salmon from the sea.
These impacts on the health of the fish are compounded into broader ecological issues. Humans’ endless greed and exploitation of marine resources is pushing many species to the brink. “Some scientists predict we will see the end of commercial fishing by 2050. Although not everyone agrees with that timeline, the consensus is that we're taking too much,” Cheryl highlights. Her major concern is the faint and unsustainable future of the West Coast’s fishing industry.
Every weekend, tourists from all over the world take boats to the blue Bay Area ocean. The fishermen and tourists who move forward in the early morning wind cheer and pull their webs and rods. To let our next generations also see the lively fish markets and the restaurants selling delicious Bay Area dishes, like seared cod and clam chowder, we should protect this beautiful bay. We should understand the urgent need for sustainable management practices and proactive measures to solve these issues.
Without significant changes in a few decades, the future will depict a grim picture of marine life in the Bay Area and beyond.
Works Cited
“The Extinction Crisis Devastating San Francisco Bay - Golden State Salmon Association.” Golden State Salmon Association, goldenstatesalmon.org/the-extinction-crisis-devastating-san-francisco-bay/#:~:text=%E2%80%9CThe%20fisheries%20for%20Chinook%20salmon.
Bland, Alastair. “Is San Francisco Bay Fished Out?” East Bay Express, https://eastbayexpress.com/is-san-francisco-bay-fished-out-1/.
Duggan, Tara. ““Unprecedented Times” Threaten to Bring Down Historic California Industry” San Francisco Chronicle, https://www.sfchronicle.com/climate/article/fishing-salmon-economy18339413.php?utm_source=ground.news&utm_medium=referral.
National Research Council. Sustaining Marine Fisheries. National Academy Press, 1999.
"Pacific Sardine." NOAA Fisheries, https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/species/pacific-sardine.
"The Modern Day Pacific Sardine Collapse: How to Prevent a Future Crisis." Oceana, https://usa.oceana.org/responsible-fishing-modern-day-pacific-sardine-collapse-how-prevent-future-crisis/.
"North American green sturgeon." Center for Biological Diversity, https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/species/fish/North_American_green_sturgeon/index.ht
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"Green Sturgeon." NOAA Fisheries, https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/species/green-sturgeon.
"Sturgeon Caviar." Fish & Caviar, https://fishandcaviar.com/sturgeon-caviar/.
Guiry, Michael D. "How Many Species of Algae Are There?" National Library of Medicine, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27011267/.
Hashish, Emad, et al. "Mycobacterium Marinum Infection in Fish and Man." National Library of Medicine, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6831007/.
Sanders, Jessie, et al. "Mycobacteria in Fish aka Fish Tuberculosis." Aquatic Veterinary Services, https://cafishvet.com/fish-health-disease/mycobacteria-fish-tuberculosis/.
Arabaci, Muhammed, et al. "An Ignored Environmental Problem." Atatürk University, https://www.researchgate.net/publication/311903349_An_Ignored_Environmental_Problem_the_Problems_Stemming_from_Cement_Used_in_the_Constructions_of_Aquatic_Buildings_and_Their_Effects_on_Fishes.
Madrigal, Alexis. “Bay Area Fisheries Working Against the Tide of Shortened or Canceled Seasons.” KQED Forum, KQED website, https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101906177/bay-area-fisheries-working-against-the-tide-of-shortened-or-canceled-seasons.
