Originally Posted By: Carcassman
I find it odd that freshwater habitat continues to get blamed for why steelhead won't recover.

Anadromous cutthroat and anadromous native char seem to be rebounding pretty well. They spawn and rear in freshwater areas similar to steelhead and yet the are increasing. But, they don't have the take that steelhead do. And, they manage to do this in the horribly polluted and dieing Puget Sound.

Steelhead are telling us, by their lack of recovery, that we have not dealt with the issues that are keeping them down. The other species, whose life histories are similar to steelhead, are showing what works.



The other species life histories are similar but are different in one very important aspect, the time spent in the ocean. The link below is to an article that was in the Osprey Newsletter, issue No. 75, May 2013. The entire issue is not available online, it has other interesting articles related to steelhead, but this article is on line through the NOAA SWFSC library. I am biased but I think it offers insight into why steelhead in Puget Sound are not doing well.

From the article; "The bottom line is that the North Pacific Ocean is crucial habitat for steelhead, and climate change and acidification threats to habitat in the ocean may become as great as those in our most imperiled streams."

Steelhead and Climate Change